Birth of a Queen
by Lord22
Summary: The zerg have been repulsed from Tarsonis, and the terrans and protoss are on the offensive. Yet all is not yet lost, for a new Cerebrate has arisen, more cunning than any other and charged with a chrysalis from which will be born the most powerful strain of zerg ever wrought. The second installment of the Serenaverse.
1. On the Outskirts

**Chapter One: On the Outskirts**

 _The Cerebrate._

 _A shockingly vague name. Technically speaking it could apply to just about any cerebrate. After all, there are a whole bunch. We still don't know exactly how many. Yet these days when you mention the Cerebrate it has very real meaning._

 _We mean the Cerebrate who was born sometime after the battle of Tarsonis. The Cerebrate who was just a little bit different from all the rest. Who never entirely fell into the nice clean time tables which higher-ups in command like to use._

 _There is a very good reason for this._

 **-Liberty's reports, volume II**

* * *

The terrans had put up a furious resistance. It had been futile. Far greater than the swarm had even anticipated. The swarms had ravaged five out of the thirteen terran worlds. Yet when gains had been made, the protoss would destroy the world before it could be put to much use. Little by little the swarms had gained ground, however. And yet their assault on Tarsonis, that should have heralded a glorious end, was repulsed.

Now the tide of the war in the terran sector had turned. The protoss and terrans were destroying the weakened hive clusters of the zerg. Yet from hardship came evolution, and from this realization came thought.

It was alive, it realized, though not as other things. It was not the beating of a creature's heart. It was not the blood flowing through the veins of those things which were a part of it. It was not the pulsing volcano of flesh crawling with larva. Nor was it the memories of carnage and blood — the screaming last thoughts which coursed through what lesser races called a soul.

It simply was. All of this was a part of him but it was not him. What was he?

Then he beheld the face of what terrans called god. It was majestic and powerful beyond description. It could not be contained within mere flesh and blood. This was that which had formed him, that which had formed all the swarm. He loved and feared him as a child loves and fears a father.

 _ **'Awaken my child and embrace the glory that is your birthright. Know that I am the Overmind, the eternal will of the swarm and that you have been created to serve me. Behold that I shall set you among the greatest of my cerebrates that you might benefit from their wisdom and experience.**_

 _ **Yet your purpose is unique. While they carry forth my will to the innumerable broods, you have but a single charge entrusted to your care. For I have found a creature that may yet become the greatest of my agents. Even now it resides within a protective chrysalis, awaiting its rebirth into the swarm.**_

 _ **You must watch over the chrysalis and ensure that no harm comes to the creature within it. Go now, and keep safe my prize.'**_

It was a cerebrate of the Overmind. And it had its instructions. It became more aware of where it was. It's hive clusters were located on a little island of the Overmind's domain. Beyond that island could sense nothing. There was a lake to the north of his hive cluster; north was a direction the terrans used.

Why did it think like a terran?

This was all very new to it. Everything was very new to him.

Then it felt another presence, far greater than it. It was not as great as the Overmind of course, nothing was, but it held authority and power beyond it.

 **'The hatchery is the heart of any zerg colony.'** The greater being said. **'It spontaneously generates larva, which in turn are used to spawn your various warriors and minions.'**

The volcano thing… it was a hatchery. The creatures standing dormant around it, they were drones. Yet what was the purpose of drones? Did they fight?

That seemed logical. They were much larger than the other creatures which were standing by. These things… zerglings was what the terrans called them, they were not workers, were they? No, they were warriors. Even if they were much smaller than drones.

 **'Now, create a drone and start gathering resources.'**

How did it do that? The Cerebrate reached out to grasp at the larva with his mind. Yet as it did so the greater being guided it little by little through what it had to do. Giving instructions, he saw the larva begin to mutate into eggs. It was very quick indeed and soon a whole number of eggs had been created. Yet the hive itself began to wane, lacking resources. Once again the Cerebrate was guided gradually to send its drones toward what had once been a terran mine.

There the creatures began to harvest. They used their great pincers to carve the minerals. From there they haul them back for processing in the hatchery. The minerals then became nutrients which the hatchery spat out. These, in turn, were fed to the larva who were transformed into still more drones.

So it was that the Cerebrate spent a few days working to create new drones to gather more minerals. Then using those minerals to create new drones. It was interesting at first but soon became dull. The Cerebrate then turned its attention to the chrysalis.

As the Cerebrate went closer to the chrysalis it sensed fear and hesitation. Visions swam through the Cerebrates mind. It thought he was actually experiencing it. It was separated from the others, and they were closing in. It could feel death and grief and horror. Then suddenly, anger, rage, rage directed towards a group…

The Sons of Korhal.

The visions retreated. The Cerebrate wondered at what it had seen. Vaguely it recalled a group known as the Sons of Korhal. They had done terrible damage to the swarm, hadn't they? They and the protoss had routed them at Tarsonis.

Over time the strain of controlling drones became greater. The Cerebrate found it could not keep going. It wanted to follow its instructions, but it couldn't. It hurt to try. Once again, it felt the greater presence appear to guide him. **'Overlords provide control for your minions. As your forces grow in number, you must hatch more overlords to control them. You have enough minerals, command a larva and mutate it into an overlord.'**

The greater being directed the Cerebrate and soon new eggs were well on their way to hatching. Sometime later several new overlords emerged from the eggs. They began floating over his hive clusters. The strain departed. The Cerebrate realized it could now control all the creatures. That meant that it had grown greater, larger in authority. It wanted to grow greater still. To create more, greater things. It realized that there were other creatures in the service of the Overmind. Ones' he had never seen or felt.

Images from the chrysalis filled his thoughts. Of vast tides of warriors laying waste to the towns and cities of terrans. Of worlds falling beneath the onslaught of the endless streams of broods. Overwhelmed by the ceaseless fury of the swarm. No, that was not right. From the first, the swarm had been opposed by terrans in white armor, terrans in red armor, terrans in blue armor. They formed powerful battle lines and broke the swarm's offensives, and destroyed hive clusters. Because of them, the swarm had been checked.

And the hated protoss were their allies. He did not need to feel the chrysalis to know the grand vendetta between protoss and zerg. Great hive clusters were built, only to be annihilated from on high. Huge armies were mustered, only to be torn to pieces by the psionics of the protoss.

The Cerebrate desired to meet them. To strike down and annihilate these terrans. To wash over all resistance and prove himself worthy of bearing a name. Yes, that was what he wished to do more than anything!

And yet he was chained to the chrysalis. He had been created for the sole purpose of being supplanted by whatever it was within the chrysalis. Sudden jealousy and anger awoke in him. Yet he beat it down. His purpose was to guard and protect the chrysalis and he would fulfill it. The greater being appeared again. **'To create new warrior strains, you must generate the various hive structures. The drones themselves mutate into these structures. Yet be careful, never use your last drone to make a building.**

 **Now order your drone to become a spawning pool. You'll notice that structures can only implant themselves upon the creep.'**

The creep?

The Cerebrate looked through the eyes of its minions. It perceived physical reality for the first time. Everything the violet goo known as creep touched was the Overmind's domain. Yet beyond were rocky hills and grassy plains. In those places, there was no perfection, as there was with the swarm. Things simply existed without meaning or purpose. One day the Cerebrate wanted to spread the swarm to all stars. Every world would be infested, every creature assimilated.

 **'You can make creep colonies to extend the creep.'** said the greater being. **'But only the hatchery can be built upon open ground.'**

Then very suddenly the Cerebrate was alone. The greater being had departed, content to let him succeed or flounder as he would. He would be provided with no further guidance. And for a time it succeeded. Over the next few weeks, the Cerebrate mutated drones into various hive structures. A spawning pool was created, and a den for hydralisks. Creep colonies were created and transformed into what the terrans called sunken colonies.

The Cerebrate realized that it used terran words? Did the swarm adopt such turns of phrase after entering the sector? Or was it somehow different from the others? Perhaps it was merely interpreting the words spoken to it in the manner of terrans. The idea was somehow disgusting to it. It felt sullied, somehow.

He focused on building his army. No zerglings of course. They were almost always mowed down before they reached the enemy lines. No, its army would be one of higher strains, like hydralisks. It would create a mighty brood of creatures to lay waste to all that opposed the swarm.

Now if only he had an enemy to unleash his army on.

Then there came another presence. It was greater than it, but not so great as the one who had proceeded it. Yet it was also… nice in the way it felt towards it. Friendly. 'Greetings, I am Zasz. I too am a Cerebrate of the Overmind. I have located a small band of terrans that could threaten the chrysalis and the hive cluster. You must not allow them to leave here alive.'

A task! A chance to prove itself as more than a caretaker! At that moment he saw that Zasz was an ancient servant of the Overmind. His brood, the Garm Brood, was the largest of all the swarms and it had lain waste to five terran worlds in the past. Yet in the battles with the terrans, the Garm Brood had been reduced in size, alongside many other broods. But it was learning from those injuries and growing stronger for it.

Even so, anger came to the Cerebrate. Anger with the terrans who dared oppose the swarm.

Thus it summoned to him all his hydralisks. It had bred their armor and spines to be as strong and deadly as it could manage. It paled in comparison to the greater cerebrates, but it would suffice. Zasz would not have given it this task were it not capable of achieving it.

It had several hundred of the creatures and he prepared to send them out.

Then the terrans attacked. Clad in brown armor, a great force of firebats and marines struck from the north. They assailed his sunken colonies. It rallied its hydralisks and sent them into battle.

It could sense the terrans confusion as battle was joined. They were used to facing massive numbers of zerglings supported by hydralisks. To face so many of the greater strain made them afraid and panicky. Their armor was weaker, their guns less effective. After a few moments of trading fire, the terrans broke ranks and fled. Yet none would escape that way, for the Cerebrate had bred its hydralisks to be fast as well as strong.

They overtook the terrans, slaughtered them, and tore their corpses to bloody shreds.

Victory! A first victory!

Whatever doubts it might have once had regarding zerglings faded from its mind. It gathered the zerglings and sent them east followed by its hydralisks. The zerglings found a terran fortified outpost and assailed it quickly. The thousand or so of the creatures tore through the terran goliaths and their marine guards. Many zerglings were killed, yet those that remained cut down all the terrans in the area.

With the outpost butchered, the Cerebrate sent the remaining zerglings north. He bound them to the place Zasz had directed him, having his hydralisks follow in their wake.

All of a sudden the Cerebrate felt pain! To its horror, it realized that a force of wraiths had come over the water to attack its hive cluster! The hive cluster was under attack! It could not fail the Overmind, it would not fail! In a panic, the Cerebrate withdrew his hydralisks while the zerglings died in droves. Before too much damage could be done his hydralisks returned. They shot down several of the wraiths.

Yet the other disappeared and began blasting his hydralisks from on high. Yet the Cerebrate could not perceive them, and neither could his broods.

 _'Cerebrate,'_ said Zasz, _'your overlords can detect such cloaked enemies.'_

Of course! The Cerebrate sent his overlords to aid the hydralisks yet they were moving too slowly. With every passing moment, more of his hydralisks were dying. Marines came from the east to attack the defenses, supported by goliaths. He was being attacked from both sides.

The ground assault was repulsed at great cost, but he was unable to pursue the fleeing terrans. Then the overlords arrives. The hydralisks turned and shot down many of the remaining wraiths. A few escaped fleeing over the water.

The hive cluster was intact, but many of his hydralisks were dead.

 **'Cerebrate, your hive clusters would be defenseless. You might have been overrun.'** said the greater being. **'Do not make the same mistake again.'**

The Cerebrate cringed for a few days as he created new hydralisks to replace those he had lost. He had disappointed a servant of the Overmind. Fortunately, the terrans had suffered grievously as well. His overlords reported to him that they were calling in reinforcements.

It was too late. Within a few days, the Cerebrate had mustered a new army. He sent it forth towards the terran base camp, leaving a few behind as a garrison. The terrans threw everything they had against them. The two armies faced each other. Gauss rifles and machineguns firing on one side and acid spines on the other. Both sides suffered terrible casualties, but the zerg were fearless. Soon the terrans broke as their goliaths exploded around them.

The hydralisks pursued them to their base camp. They began killing everything they found. Terran civilians fled in horror as the military personnel made a stand as best they could. For a few minutes, the terran defenders held the hydralisks at bay. Other terrans began to flee behind them. These were what terrans called civilians. Then the line broke and what remained were slaughtered.

The Cerebrate would have pursued the civilians and massacred them in tribute to the Overmind. Yet he was concerned about the source of the wraiths. Scaling up the cliffs he found where they were being stored. He shot down those which had gotten into the air and then set about obliterated those still on the ground.

When all the terrans in the region were dead, the Cerebrate drew back his forces to the hive cluster. Then he set about creating new ones that the swarm might no longer be diminished.

Victory belonged to the swarm.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Okay, here we have the first chapter for the zerg campaign. In my original plans, I wanted the Cerebrate to be a reckless blood knight.

See, I decided to make things focus on the personal and emotional side of the story. That is what people care about. But I'm doing things from the perspective of the Cerebrate, who does see the world like an RTS game. So, I'm kind of stuck.


	2. Egression

**Chapter Two: On the Outskirts**

 _It didn't start out obvious. At first we just saw a zerg commander who was a bit different from the others. It didn't just try to swamp its enemies in the corpses of its minions, it experimented. Tried new things. Our first contact with it was when it wiped out an entire division of former Omega Squadron troops with minimal casualties._

 _It was supposed to be the other way around. Yet at first it didn't seem like much of a problem._

 _At first._

 _-Liberty's report, volume II_

* * *

Over the next month the Cerebrate worked constantly to make his broods stronger. Ownership of particular strains was limited largely to a few special elite forces, such as the infested command center's which the greater being, whose name was Daggoth, collected. It was not unknown for one cerebrate to offer a hive or three to another when their skills were more suited. They were all of them separate, yet united in the Overmind.

With this thought driving him… yes he was probably a he, the Cerebrate created hive cluster after hive cluster wherever he could find suitable locations. Yet as he worked he found the terrans were always there. Blue armored humans would launch assaults on his outlying hive clusters almost as soon as they had been completed. One of these offensives was repelled with great casualties, yet soon the terrans came back with siege tanks and blasted his sunken colonies, overrun his hydralisks and burned the hive down.

Joke was on them, though, by the time they had finished he'd started several other hives and assistance from Daggoth prevented them from advancing any further. Because he had not yet learned to create the greater strains of zerg, he was forced to constantly expand to create more hives. As his forces swelled larger and larger, his overlords filled the skies over his core hive clusters. On these he placed so formidable a defense that the enemy dafred not attack them first without eliminating his core hive clusters. And since he was always expanding they never did.

Soon he began to enjoy his skirmishes with the terrans. He overran another terran outpost and slaughtered hundreds before setting about any civilians he could find. Oh how they screamed and sobbed and begged for mercy as his broods closed in. Other times his his hive clusters would be overrun and he'd be forced to improvise a defense.

It was… fun. He had the feeling he would yearn for these days later. Whatever the case he soon became strong enough to wield a new strain of creature, mutalisks and he used them for several raids. Zasz taught him how. He enjoyed the way the terrans panicked when he took them by surprise in some area they did not expect with a great swarm of mutalisks.

Yet soon the terrans sent in a troop surge and many more of those they called professional soldiers arrived to begin reinforcing their outlying bases. They went clad in red armor, rather than blue and the one called Serena Calabas, the Cerebrate remembered her vaguely as one remembers a dream, defeated an advance which he'd hoped great things would come of. With his momentum crushed she drove her forces forward in an onslaught which destroyed two hive clusters of great size. The Cerebrate inflicted casualties, of course, but was unable to halt her.

Yet instead of advancing she drew back her hand and waited. The Cerebrate was disappointed by this.

Zasz, in the meantime, was working on something else entirely. The cerebrate of the Garm Brood had been establishing a hive cluster on the orbital space platform of New Gettysburg. The old one had been destroyed by the terrans during the battle of Tarsonis. Now it was replaced in still greater glory.

A question occured and the Cerebrate attempted to voice it. It was difficult, but after a moment he managed to make it known. 'I… do… not… understand… Zasz.' he said 'Why… the… terrans… left station… undefended?'

 _'_ _The swarm slew many of the creautres in our assault.'_ said Zasz _'Those that remain are focused entirely on our hives on the surface. If we seize this ground, we will be able to send overlords carrying drones across the planet with ease. Even as the terrans destroy one of my hives, I will simply build two more.'_

The Cerebrate did not understand this policy. 'Would it not… be better… to never lose… a… a… hive?'

 _'_ _Daggoth prefers that strategy.'_ said Zasz _'Yet it served us poorly in the terran world of Chau Sara. We poured many broods into seizing that world and many hives were destroyed by the terrans of Alpha Squadron. In the end, as we gained victory, the protoss appeared and incinerated the planet._

 _Thus we adapted a new policy of spreading to as many worlds and possible and trying to build our forces in secret there. Some of our hives would be destroyed by the terrans. Some worlds we conquered would be annihilated by the protoss. Yet others would escape unscathed and the swarm would continue growing larger.'_

It made sense and the strategy seemed to have worked. Yet something about it was odd to the Cerebrate. 'What of… this world? Why have… protoss not destroyed it?'

 _'_ _We do not know.'_ admitted Zasz _'The protoss and terrans do not act as one unified whole. Their actions do not reflect any inner harmony, for they have no Overmind.'_

No Overmind? There was nothing that united the terrans and protoss as a whole? Where the zerg were all one, represented in many forms, those they fought were not. Only were an abomination!

He doubled his efforts in the skirmishes and isolated a company of soldiers and ambushed them. Surrounded on all sides they formed a ring to defend against his broods, but in vain and despite his casualties he little by little slaughtered them. The Cerebrate was ready to do battle again. Yet they stopped attacking after this. It seemed the terrans had given up. He launched an assault against their defenses, but his hydralisks could not pierce their ranks and they left no weak spots for his mutalisks to exploit.

After several grueling days of battle, many of his hydralisks were dead for little result. He drew back what remained of his broods and began to prepare for another offensive. Then the Overmind spoke to him, though he had always been there.

 ** _'_** ** _I am well pleased, young Cerebrate, and so long as my prize remains intact I shall remain pleased. Thus its life and yours shall be made as one. For you are part of the swarm.'_**

What prize? Oh right the chrysalis! He'd completely forgotten about that!

 ** _'_** ** _If ever your flesh should fail, that flesh shall be made anew. That is my covenant with all cerebrates. Now you have grown strong enough to bear the rigors of warp travel with the swarm. Thus we shall make our exit from this blasted world and secure the crystalis within the hive cluster on the planet of Char.'_**

 _'_ _Part of the protoss fleet still lingers in this planets orbit.'_ said Zasz _'They will attempt to block our exodus at every turn.'_

 **'** **My brood shall aid you, Cerebrate, if you require assistance.'** said Daggoth.

The Cerebrate sensed above Tarsonis a change. Beyond the New Gettysburg space platform the fabric of reality was warping to create a portal through warp space. Even now the broods were mustering to depart Tarsonis in a great egression the Cerebrate had not seen in his lifetime. Only in the faint images of his preexistence had he ever been aware of so many zerg moving at once. There were mutalisks, and queens and guardians and every kind of strain.

In the past month the swarms had worked tirelessly to repopulate their decimated numbers. Now with their forces bolstered they were departing from Tarsonis en masse. The Cerebrate gathered many of his swarms and loaded them onto his overlords before departing. Yet they left behind substantial forces and in time would rebuild those hives which had been shattered.

Then, as the Cerebrate departed with the chrystalis safely tucked away in an overlord, there came an attack. Alpha Squadron advanced on his hive clusters. Just as they had destroyed so many hives before, so to did they now do the same to him. They had thousands of marines, hundreds of goliaths and brought with them dozens of siege tanks. The hydralisks left behind were blasted to pieces, the mutalisks shot from the sky. At the same time in a dozen places the terrans unleashed a massive offensive across the weakend lines of battle, breaking through the swarms best defenses.

The terran Jim Raynor was on the field. He could sense it from the disgusting sense of hope which flowed over the terrans. They were rallying against the swarm to save their world, to send it back into the oblivion before the Overmind came and there was nothing he could do to stop them.

More than anything he wanted to send back his forces to help them, to stem the tide. Yet he could not. The Overmind would not allow it. All his hopes that his work would make a difference for the swarm were utterly shattered as the hive clusters he had worked to create so lovingly were destroyed one by one.

Feeling like crying he turned away from Tarsonis and saw a fleet of protoss vessels approaching him. Their golden ships gleamed with energy and he was suddenly filled hatred born of centuries of war. These creatures had killed many billions of zerg throughout the sector without taking a single casualty. They had stayed in orbit and annihilated whole worlds with their strange weaponry.

Mustering his mutalisks the Cerebrate sent them forth for revenge. The protoss vessels weaved in and out with the mutalisks, trading fire. Several protoss ships were sent spiraling down towards the planet to crash and burn. Others exploded in a brilliant blue light. Yet many mutalisks also fell in the dogfight as it raged without relent.

 **'** **Do with my minions as you will, Cerebrate.'** said Daggoth **'They will serve you unquestioningly. Go now, and bring swift wrath to all who would oppose the swarm.'**

With control established over a large part of Daggoth's broods, the Cerebrate brought them forth to launch an all out assault against the protoss. Many more of their ships were destroyed and the remaining ones broke off. Filled with wrath, the Cerebrate pursued them, meaning to massacre them to the last.

 **'** **The chrysalis is in danger! Recover it before all is lost!'** cried Daggoth.

Panic overtook the Cerebrate as he realized that the protoss had slipped around his lines and even now were attacking his overlords. Several had been killed already, along with all his zerg within them. Filled with wrath he dragged his mutalisks back and set to task on the protoss vessels, which broke off to try and escape. Several were destroyed, but the Cerebrate dared not pursue them far.

He withdrew and protected the overlords.

Below on Tarsonis he knew that Alpha Squadron and the terran known as Raynor were laying waste to what remained of the hives. At the thought of Raynor there was a reaction from the chrysalis. The Cerebrate now felt the memories which had before been only dim and cold coursing through him, filled with passions and emotions which hurt him worse than he had ever been hurt by all the weapons of his enemies.

He recoiled from the chrysalis. What horror was contained within?

The Cerebrate choose to focus on keeping the chrysalis safe. The Overmind what was best, and he would obey him. The protoss fleet pulled back as the swarm went beyond New Gettysburg and before their eyes the veil of reality peeled back by the will of the Overmind. Before them the Cerebrate could see the infinite expanse of reality, both an infinite distance away and yet very close. It was beautiful and horrible, terrible and lovely at once.

 _'_ _Prepare yourself Cerebrate.'_ said Zsaz _'Your first jump through warp space could prove… unsettling.'_

The Cerebrate appreciated Zasz's concern but he sincerely doubted there was anything which could-PAIN!

It was sheer agony unlike anything he had experienced! It closed around him, getting worse and worse, until he could bear it no longer! His whole body and spirit was filled with it! Then, just as he thought he would be torn asunder he was out of it and all was suddenly well!

Thus he beheld for the first time Char, and upon it billions and billions of zerg. From the merest glance he could detect hundreds of hives upon the surface alone. The closer they got to the ashworld the more magnificent it became. The Cerebrate gazed in wonder, for it seemed to him that this place was greater than any other could be in the whole of the universe. And yet despite that there were yet places on it where the swarm had no dominion.

'How can the swarm be so many?' he asked, and he realized their enemies had asked a similar question.

 _'_ _It has been my greatest task.'_ said Zasz, a note of pride in his voice. _'Long ago the Overmind dispatched me to the mineral rich fields of Char to create a hive cluster unlike any other. Thus I labored beneath the gaze of both protoss and terrans, digging many tunnels under the surface. There are many hives beneath the ground as well, many secret ways by which the swarm may move to defend one location or another._

 _With every passing moment more broods of zerg are born and sent forth to other worlds to spread the swarm. Thus have we been made unassailable.'_

The Cerebrate descended to Char. And as he established his broods in a new hive cluster, at the center of many great hive clusters, he wondered what could be so mighty within the chrystalis that could compare to the majesty of this place, and the power it wielded?

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Well here we have chapter two. I'm having a lot of trouble making these chapters all that long. So I'm going to use this time to try and flesh out some of the Cerebrate characters a bit more. Given that they are both thousands of years old, it seems likely Daggoth and Zasz would have more to their personality than mindless subservience.


	3. The New Dominion

**Chapter Three: The New Dominion**

 _The Dominion's invasion of Char was the start of the single most expensive battle the terran Dominion has fought up until today. Tarsonis had a higher casualty rate, if only because of the massive number of civilians involved, but it technically predated the Dominion's existence. Meanwhile Char was notable because of the sheer resources which ended up getting poured into it._

 _The expedition met with early success, of course and at first it seemed would achieve it's objective. And hell, if they had it probably would have been better for everyone. A lot of good people would still be alive today if they had snatched their target._

 _Unfortunately the Cerebrate was standing in Duke's way._

 _Liberty's report, volume II_

* * *

Char was more wonderful than any place the Cerebrate had seen in all its days, nor even in the memories which passed through him of other brutal worlds. Its surface was tormented by harsh ash storms that could tear the skin from the flesh of creatures. Great lakes of lava churned and swirled throughout the surface of the planet. Some of the tunnels which Zasz showed him would fill with lava. There were a few places where green grew, in decadent swamps that churned with diseases. All these things encouraged the process the terrans identified as natural selection. The weak died, and the strong were bred to create greater creatures.

'The Overmind must truly have favored you to task you with creating the hive clusters upon such a world.' said the Cerebrate, who had learned to talk better.

Zasz was pleased by his words. _'The Overmind favors those who serve the swarm well. My broods number more than the stars in the sky, and my hives stretch across dozens of worlds. Beneath his gaze I have created the largest of all the broods.'_

'Yet then why is Daggoth considered greater?' asked the Cerebrate.

Zasz did not answer at first. _'Daggoth is older than I by far. He was the first cerebrate the Overmind created and he held a different purpose than I. Where I create vast tides of broods, Daggoth breeds smaller broods that are stronger._

 _He is very interested in ways by which he can improve his individual creatures, while I prefer to create vast numbers and overrun the enemy. Both our broods have served the Overmind well.'_

'Yet isn't the chrysalis to become something greater than both you and Daggoth?' asked the Cerebrate 'Greater than all Cerebrates.'

 _'_ _There is no certainty of that.'_ said Zasz, voice annoyed. _'The swarm has had many failed strains in the past. When we try to infest a creature at first, most of the creatures we attempt it on die. And of those many are imperfect creations, useful for very little._

 _The chrysalis may prove one of those.'_

'The Overmind does not seem to think so.' noted the Cerebrate.

 _'_ _The Overmind's ways are beyond us.'_ said Zasz _'Only Daggoth can truly fathom his glory, and sometimes I think even he cannot fully grasp it. His eye pierces all things, and turns the thoughts of all that exist to its grand design. Thus even what seems a failure will only serve to bring forth his glory in greater and more magnificent ways than before._

 _It is so with the chrysalis.'_

The Cerebrate then turned his attention to growing his hives. He created vast spires and worked to increase the strength of his warrior strains. He worked hard, and over the course of the next few weeks his broods grew stronger and stronger. He established large hive clusters on the cliffs above, and soon a new hatchery was busy producing his straings. Yet he noted that Zasz was looking at his armies with some concern.

 _'_ _Cerebrate,'_ said Zasz _'you have not created any zerglings. Only hydralisks and mutalisks. How do you intend to launch assaults?'_

'Zerglings are numerous, but not good for much.' said the Cerebrate 'They die a lot, and their only virtue is that they take little in the way of resources to bring forth. Far better to put those resources into mighty creatures such as the hydralisk, and the mutalisk and all the rest.'

Something in his words seemed to have offended Zasz. _'Have you heard nothing that I have said? There lies virtue in sheer numbers which cannot be matched by individual strength alone. It is true that zerglings alone cannot triumph over a determined defense. Yet the same can be said of all creatures in the swarm._

 _The Overmind does not create things without power.'_

'I am sorry.' said the Cerebrate 'Yet I cannot see any power the zerglings possess that cannot be achieved by hydralisks.'

 _'_ _That is because you were born of the mind of terrans.'_ said Zasz _'The Overmind formed you from the minds of the many terrans we fought against who were infested, or whose mind touched with his. You have thus inherited their hatred of unneeded casualties.'_

'I… I was made from terrans?' asked the Cerebrate, feeling a sense of revulsion. 'You cannot really mean than, can you Zasz? I hate terrans, their directionless, petty, worthless creatures who need shells of iron to accomplish anything.'

 _'_ _The Overmind saw a use for them.'_ said Zasz _'That is why He created you from their thoughts. That is why you are different from the rest of us. You have strength of your own, Cerebrate that must be tempered for his greater glory. All the differences between the cerebrates only serve to make Him stronger._

 _Yet you must also realize that there are battles where a horde of zerglings will serve better than the mightiest ultralisk. Do you understand?'_

'I… will try to find the uses you speak of.' said the Cerebrate. 'Thank you Zasz.'

 _'_ _Remember always that we exist to serve him. And our petty differences must not interfere with that service.'_

Then Zasz was gone. The Cerebrate did create some zerglings and in a few practice battles with other Cerebrates who did not have names either he used them. Yet after his initial waves were wiped out, doing only moderate damage, he ended up going back to relying on hydralisks and mutalisks.

Zasz did not confront him on the matter, and soon the Cerebrate ended up forgetting all about it as he won victory after victory over the other nameless cerebrate. A few gave him trouble, a few even defeated him, yet he always returned the favor later.

Then one day the chrystalis, which the Cerebrate had almost forgotten about, began to send forth psionic emenations. Now he had visions of a starship going down to crash into the surface of a world… it was called Antiga Prime wasn't it? He felt a sense of anger, resistance, and reluctance, tempered by a knowledge that the one he was serving knew best. He looked at it curiously, once again wondering what could lie within. Then the Overmind was there and he and his kind prostrated their spirits in reverance.

 ** _'_** ** _Behold the power of that which is yet unborn!'_** said the Overmind. **_'For the swirling images that flow forth from the chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power'_**

Joy coursed through the swarm at his words, and the other Cerebrates were overjoyed, as were the lesser strains. For his part the Cerebrate felt jealousy. He wanted to hold the place that the chrystalis did in the Overmind's thoughts. Had he not defeated a great host of terrans? Had he not broken through the protoss blockade? All the chrystalis had done there was lie around and be escorted.

A few days later the Cerebrate was drawn into the inside of a terran structure which had been infested. He didn't at all see what the value of the whole thing was personally, what could it do that the hatchery couldn't? Granted he'd never actually had one in his power, but he failed to see what the use of infesting these terrans was. Most weren't even psionically attuned, and their constant mental begging for death was irritating.

This was Daggoth's domain, but he could also sense Zasz present. _'The psionic emanations of the chrystalis have reached out into the depths of space and lured our enemies to us! Even now, we are aware of their plans:'_

Daggoth directed a tendril to hit a button on a blinking command console. A voice, an old terran who the Cerebrate recognized came on. Here was the being whom the chrysalis had been reluctant to save.

'Alright. All squadrons close formation and scan for hostiles. Emperor Arcturus believes that there's zerg out here, so it's our job to flush em out! I don't want any slip-ups this time! We'll show these critters that they can't run from the Terran Dominion!'

General Edmund Duke, the head of Alpha Squadron. He and his servants had killed uncountable numbers of the swarm, and destroyed many hive clusters. His agents had been involved in the annihilation of the Cerebrate's hive clusters. Once Duke had nearly been slain, his squadron broken and all his works destroyed. Yet it was not to be, for Raynor came to his rescue.

'Let me face him!' cried the Cerebrate 'I will crush his warriors and lay waste to all his kind!'

 **'** **Engage the terran forces with care.'** said Daggoth, his voice chiding. **'Your priority is to protect the chrystalis at all costs.'**

'Yes, Daggoth.' said the Cerebrate.

He drew his broods in around his primary hive cluster and waited for Alpha Squadron to come to him. They did not come quickly. They landed a large distance to the north and their white clad marines immediately destroyed three hive clusters in a blistering combat which lasted a whole day. Vast numbers of zerg flocked to the defense of the hive clusters, yet Alpha Squadron pressed on, crushing everything in sight.

When all three hive clusters had been destroyed, large and great that once housed many broods, Alpha Squadron was forced to withdraw. The other nameless Cerebrates had launched an assault on them from the north, and for a moment the Cerebrate thought they would be destroyed. Yet Alpha Squadron drew back their hand, and drove off the assault. Pressing north they burned a path of devastation through the zerg broods north of their position.

Finally they pressed further south towards where the Cerebrate had his hives. Yet one more bastion stood in their way, barring their path. Hundreds of Alpha Squadron marines died to take the defensive position in that place. Yet at last they were overrun and the hive cluster put to flame. And as it burned the Cerebrate felt his fury grow. He'd seen the zerg defeated before, of course, but to have them be defeated on Char was a sacrilege that defied all redress.

Now Duke took the cliffs he began to move his primary base of operations there. Over the next few days the Cerebrate mobilized his broods, and Duke set up his base of operations. It was a bitter standoff, for huge numbers of zerg had been destroyed, alongside many hatcheries. At every passing moment the Cerebrate wanted to assault his enemy, to destroy him utterly, yet he knew he must wait. Better to repulse Duke's assault, then move in for the kill.

Alpha Squadron's flyers sought to gain the cliffs, but the Cerebrate had placed many spore colonies in the hive there. Dozens of wraiths were melted in midair, falling to crash into the ashlands below, their pilots being torn apart by the zerg or scorched by lava.

A ground assault was attempted. Yet the Cerebrate had set many burrowed zerg in the pass, waiting for them. Overconfident as Duke had become with his victories, the Cerebrate ambushed them. The zerglings were destroyed, but not before they tore apart all the siege tanks which they were being brought to bear. Many of the marines were killed as well. He enjoyed their deaths, and a few survivors were tormented for a time before being finished off.

Yet Duke did not have the sense to withdraw. Instead he bolstered his assault forces with more marines who had been sent as reinforcements and ordered a frontal assault. But the Cerebrates had not left his sunken colonies alone. Many hydralisks unburrowes around them, and massacred the Alpha Squadron company that had been sent forth. What remained of them fled back towards their defenses.

The Cerebrate then decided to use mutalisks to scout the area where Duke had set his base. There was only one way up the cliffs by land, and to reach it the swarms had to run down a narrow trench with the cliffs on one side and the lava on the other. Marines and siege tanks could fire on them from them in a funnel of fire that would slaughter many. And even if they reached the way up, there were many bunkers on top waiting for them.

Armies could break upon that position to no avail. Perhaps if he'd had ultralisks he might have managed it, yet as things stood Duke had an impenetrable ground defense. Yet the Cerebrate could feel Duke's frustration, for he had not been halted like this by the zerg before. Why were the critters suddenly fighting so much smarter?

In his overconfidence Duke had assumed his position truly unassailable and from a ground perspective that might have been the case. Yet the Cerebrate thought he might make good use of his mutalisks here. He might turn to Daggoth or Zasz if he could not find a way through, but he did not want to do that. The chrystalis was his charge, after all, and if he did not protect it no one would.

It was time that Alpha Squadron paid for what it did to him. And an overlord sent to scout his enemies position revealed the way. He felt a surge of savage joy.

'Old fool.' he said to Duke. 'There is a section on your right flank as exposed as a… uh… Zasz do we have any zerg strains capable of attacking while burrowed, but not good for much on the surface?'

 _'_ _No.'_ said Zasz.

'We'll have to work on that, then.' said Cerebrate.

Keeping his ground forces in reserve he sent a great flight of mutalisks past Duke's right side, then swung their formation around to strike his flank. The general had been so set on defending against a ground assault that he'd left only a token force to hold the right. After all, the right flank had no means up or down by ground. After all the zerg only knew how to attack head on. Not anymore, however.

For a moment the bunkers Duke had left there held out as the General tried to scramble his forces. Then they yielded, the tanks obliterated. Many grounded wraiths were found behind, their pilots relaxing, on leave. Secure in the knowledge that they were safe here on the hill.

Not anymore. Many were cut down in moments, and most of their grounded vessels were obliterated before they could take to the air.

The screams of the dying were a glorious symphony to the Cerebrate's sense. He killed everything he found and moved on, carving a swath through Duke's surprised and chaotic forces.

This was nothing Alpha Squadron had faced before now. Never before had Duke encountered so feral and well placed an assault. Yet the Cerebrate had been born of terrans, he knew their tactics and strategems and now he had used them against them.

Duke pulled in other forces, but to no avail. For the air screamed with the sound of the mutalisks wings, and as more soldiers were drawn in from outlying bases the innumerable mutalisks tore them apart. Dark joy filled the Cerebrate as Duke panicked, scrambling to find a means to hold his position and unable to realize his only escape was to flee.

Then he did to only thing he could do.

'All right, you sorry bastards! Fall back! Fall back!'

Alpha Squadron broke ranks and fled a beaten and ragged remnant fleeing to defensive lines previously established. Their base on that plateau was meant to be the primary HQ from which they would conduct the rest of their campaign. They had thought taking his hive clusters would be easy. They had been wrong, and now the Cerebrate stood ready to wipe them out once and for all!

 **'** **Hold Cerebrate! Do not pursue them.'** said Daggoth.

The Cerebrate froze at the command in his tone, and felt reluctant. Why should he stop now! The mighty Alpha Squadron had been humbled, they should be pressing the attack! This was his moment! So many zerg had tried and failed to halt them, and he had! He had routed them! This victory was his by right!

 _'_ _Cerebrate, you must stay and relocate the chrystalis to a more secure location.'_ said Zasz ' _Daggoth shall deal with the remaining terran forces.'_

The Cerebrate sensed around him and realized that Duke's Lieutenants had not been idle. They had continued to spread untold carnage in the surrounding regions. Now with Duke's defeat they were withdrawing their hand, but the damage was done. Only his hive remained standing in a region where once there had been fourteen.

He had killed many of Duke's forces, but could he match them in the open field? He found himself considering going against Daggoth's directive, but decided against it. Duty to the Overmind came first. He withdrew and began making preparations to move his forces to the place which had been prepared for him.

As he did so he realized that Alpha Squadron's losses had been more than eight times that of his brood in the field of battle. He could feel the panic spreading through his enemies ranks as it dawned on them. Yes, he was more than a guardian for a chrystalis. Far more.

* * *

Within the infestated command center, the Cerebrate was about to observe a new plan by Daggoth. He wasn't sure how it was going to work though. 'Tell me Daggoth,' said the Cerebrate 'how is it that we are going to decrypt the Dominion networks?'

 **'I have bred my Overlords to be able to receive their communications, and translate them into a form we may understand.'** said Daggoth **'The knowledge to do so was taken from the minds of many terran scientists I infested. Even as we speak we are working to break into their most guarded secrets.'**

'Wow, that is pretty cool.' said the Cerebrate. 'So the terrans are going to communicate with their throneworld of Tarsonis?'

 **'No. The terrans now report to a different world, known as Korhal.'** said Daggoth **'Once it was devastated by the terrans of Tarsonis, but now it has been rebuilt and Tarsonis pays homage to them.'**

'That seems needlessly complicated.' said the Cerebrate. 'How can the terrans hope to achieve anything if all they do is kill each other all day?'

 **'They don't.'** said Daggoth **'It is their greatest weakness and is thus to be encouraged.'**

Silence. 'So I had this really great idea for a new warrior strain-' began the Cerebrate.

 **'Silence Cerebrate.'** said Daggoth **'We have accessed the Dominion communications.'**

'My primary HQ got smashed.' said Duke 'I'm reforming my units to create a proper defensive position, but we're being hit hard. Most of our wraiths got blown to pieces, so my pilots are grounded. We must have destroyed more than a dozen hives, but they just keep on coming at us.'

'I see.' said a familiar voice came on. 'I've received your reports regarding the life signs on the planets surface. It appears that there are a great many more zerg on the surface of Char than we had calculated. And the psi disruptor seems to have had only a limited effect.

I believe we may have found the zerg's throne world, so to speak. A victory here would do a great deal to reduce their influence in the sector.' Arcturus Mengsk. He had withdrawn manny terrans from their worlds before the swarm could destroy them. He had gathered them together and won great victories. And now he was commanding Alpha Squadron.

'Victory?' asked Duke 'I'm surrounded on all sides here. My boys are crushing them, but their sending infested terrans at us. It's all a real mess. Frankly I think we oughtta pull out.' Daggoth had a tinge of satisfaction at that.

'Not just yet, General.' said Mengsk 'A second wave of Dominion troops is on it's to Char to replace your losses as we speak. And I'm sending another force to put the zerg under a second front. Which brings me to a matter of high priority. Were you able to locate your secondary objective?'

'We had visual on it.' said Duke 'Our scans had it in the zerg hive. But these damn critters beat us back, and while we were destroying their ground assault hit us from the air. I'm telling you there are way too many hives here. More than any other world on record.'

'Keep calm, General,' said Mengsk 'I want the Norad III to scan the area and see if you can locate our objective again. Once you've done that, you will provide the location to the Commander of the Hyperion. From there you will turn your attention to the elimination of the zerg in the surrounding areas.'

'Alright then.' said Duke. 'That all?'

'Go about your business, General.' said Mengsk 'Help is on the way.'

 **'It appears the terrans are sending their greatest warriors against us.'** mused Daggoth.

'So much the better.' said the Cerebrate. 'I'll crush them all into dust, and burn their colonies to ashes around me.'

 **'Continue your vigil of the chrystalis, Cerebrate.'** said Daggoth firmly **'It should be your first priority in all things.'**

'Yes, Daggoth.'

The Cerebrate couldn't wait to slaughter the next batch of terrans. It was something to look forward to. Oh, and also protect a chrysalis or... something to that effect, honestly he didn't quite get it.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

One of the things I became dead set on when writing this story was that this would not be a terran campaign or a protoss campaign. The zerg would be the primary perspective in their own campaign, just like the terrans had their own perspective in their campaign. Which leaves me with the interesting problem of making an race of alien xenomorphs interesting.

I decided to have the Cerebrate be able to intercept their transmissions along with Daggoth.


	4. Agent of the Swarm

**Chapter 4: Agent of the Swarm**

 _The Cerebrate really started to come into it's own here. It had driven in Duke's right flank and devastated his forces with swarms of mutalisks. A lot of pilots were killed before they could reach their ships and a lot of ships were blown up before their pilots could reach them. With all the scrambling it was a wonder anyone survived. By the time Duke gave the order to retreat, most of his best troops had been annihilated._

 _The whole battleline was thrown into chaos. What had been until then a routine zerg purge abruptly got deadly serious, and nearly became a route. It was all Duke could do to reform his Squadron and hold his ground as zerg came from all over to finish the job._

 _Emperor Mengsk decided Duke needed help, and arranged for backup, expecting a quick solution. He had no idea what he was getting into._

 _Libery's report, volume II_

* * *

Visions of horror surrounded him. Of a blackened wasteland of flowing lava and ash storms. Zerg flew through the space of it. Hydralisks loomed over him snarling, looking into him. Many tendrils reached into his body, changing him gradually. It was horrifically painful, and yet there was a presence forcing its way into his mind.

Then suddenly he realized it wasn't him who was experiencing this. He saw a face before him, familiar and yet different. Horrific and yet beautiful. It was a face he knew well and yet did not recognize.

 _'_ _Jimmy!'_

Raynor awoke in cold sweat in his quarters on the Hyperion and pulled himself up. His heart was beating in his chest so hard he thought it would burst. Breathing heavily, he calmed his nerves and got up. Once this had been General Mengsk' personal cabin. Now it was his, complete with free television.

Turning it on, he checked the news.

 _'_ _And in other news Emperor Mengsk held a press conferance today to speak regarding the recent victories over the zerg on Tarsonis-'_

Raynor turned it off. He didn't feel like listening to one of Mengsk's speeches. Getting dressed into his uniform, he fitted his side arm and made his way to the bridge. Captain Matt Horner looked up from where he was running the bridge and saluted.

'Sir,' he said 'I was just about to call you. We have a priority one transmission from Emperor Mengsk on the line for you.'

Seriously? Could he not escape this? 'Right,' said Raynor 'alright I'll take it now.'

He came before the console and patched it through. Mengsk looked almost eager today, which meant he must have been anticipating some great victory. 'Ah, Jim. How have you been settling into command of the Hyperion?'

'It has its perks.' admitted Raynor 'Still I have a much larger work load now. This isn't about small talk is it, Arcturus?'

'Not entirely, no.' said Mengsk 'General Duke has landed on Char. He has managed to establish a beach head on the surface, however his mission objective has eluded him. There are far more zerg on Char than was projected, and I believe we have found their throne world.

They're already drawing back some of their swarms, so if we can purge it, this war will be as good as won.'

'Right, sounds fun.' said Raynor 'So you want me to go help out Duke?'

'No.' said Mengsk 'We have reason to believe the zerg are working to create a new strain of zerg. Obviously this cannot be allowed to happen, and I want you to interrupt the process. Duke should have the coordinates for you when you arrive.

By your very presence you should help take the pressure off Duke a bit.'

'Alright,' said Raynor 'I read you.' He suddenly felt very uneasy about all this. His senses were screaming at him that he was walking into a trap. If this went south, then both Raynor's Raiders and Alpha Squadron could be destroyed. From a tactical perspective committing they best forces to an assault on a planet they knew very little about might be a very stupid idea. Then he thought that _she_ might be down there. 'We'll take care of this Arcturus. But I've got a bad feeling about this.'

'I realize we're taking a risk, Jim.' said Arcturus 'But sometimes you have to bet it all to win it big. Mengsk out.' The channel cut out.

Raynor looked up to Matt. 'Alright Captain Horner, patch me through to the fleet.'

'Right, of course sir.' said Matt 'Right away.' He pressed a few buttons. 'You're through.'

'Attention Raiders of the Dominion.' said Raynor 'We've done a lot of good so far, and a lot of folks are still alive today because we were there. But right now our boys in Alpha Squadron are having a hell of time on the zerg's primary hive in the sector. We've also got news that the zerg might be creating a new strain, and…' he paused as he remembered the dreams 'that some of our people might be being held captive by them. Well we aren't going to stand for either.

So we're going to Char. We'll stop the creation of the new strain, take the heat off Alpha Squadron and rescue any survivors there might be down there!

Let's roll people! Raynor out.'

He cut the channel, closed his eyes and breathed out. 'Okay, okay what is our ETA?'

'A few weeks sir.' said Matt.

'Great,' said Raynor 'that means I can get a drink. I need one badly.'

The Cerebrate awoke, which was strange since it never slept. The chrystalis had been reaching out through space, and he had been drawn into its visions. Was possible interest could it have in the terran Raynor? He was the most terrible enemy the zerg had among the terrans, partially because he'd gained many military victories but also because of the phenomenon known as hope.

It drove terrans to fight even when there was no chance of victory. With hope Raynor had inspired resistance where otherwise there would have been routes.

Really the chrysalis had been like this a lot lately, showing him visions of terrans. Yet it had never been this strong before. He redirected the vision to Daggoth, since it was relevant to the war. Honestly he didn't see what the Overmind saw in it.

Oh he'd almost forgotten.

'Zasz! Zasz! Zasz!' said the Cerebrate.

 _'_ _What is it Cerebrate?'_

'I have this really great idea for a new warriors strain.' said the Cerebrate.

 _'_ _Consult Daggoth.'_ said Zasz.

'I can't.' said the Cerebrate 'He's always too busy slaughtering Alpha Squadron. I can't believe its taken this long to drive them to this point.'

 _'_ _The terrans are pouring a great many of their forces to fight us.'_ said Zasz _'Their stubborness plays into the will of the Overmind.'_

'How?' asked the Cerebrate.

 _'_ _The swarms may rally a new army of warrior strains in a matter of months.'_ said Zasz _'Terrans, however, take far longer to come to physical maturity. Roughly twenty years. Thus in any war of attrition we will inevitably emerge victorious.'_

'Yeah, well that's great and all.' said the Cerebrate 'But what about my idea?'

 _'_ _Very well Cerebrate. Reveal it and I will listen.'_

'Okay, so you take two hydralisks and you merge them together into one!' said the Cerebrate. 'Into a larger hydralisk!'

 _'_ _I fail to see how this would be useful.'_ said Zasz _'Could you not simply breed a larger hydralisk, as Daggoth does.'_

'Yeah, but this hydralisk would be able to fly!' said the Cerebrate 'And it would spit corrosive acid which would burn the enemy over time in addition to the damage it does when it first hits.'

 _'_ _How precisely would merging two hydralisks together create a strain capable of flight?'_ asked Zasz.

'I…' the Cerebrate hadn't thought together. 'I'll figure something out.'

 _'_ _Would it not be simpler to transform mutalisks into this warrior strain? They already spit acid based projectiles, and they can already fly.'_ noted Zasz.

'I guess.'

 _'_ _In which case you might as well simply create guardians.'_ concluded Zasz. _'Perhaps you should focus on rebuilding your broods instead of coming up with hypothetical warrior strains.'_

'But that's so boring.' said the Cerebrate 'I've already set up my forces on an island in the middle of a lake of lava. All the surrounding islanda are held by the broods of other nameless cerebrates. I've got a lot mutalisks and hydralisks standing by.

Oh and there are these Queen things I learned how to build, but they can't attack so I'm pretty sure they're useless.'

 _'_ _Attend to the chrysalis.'_ said Zasz _'Everything else is secondary.'_

'Whatever.' said the Cerebrate. 'Even if Raynor gets past the other cerebrates, I'll crush him.'

 _'_ _What is a Raynor?'_ asked Zasz.

'You know… the Commander of Raynor's Raiders.' said the Cerebrate.

Silence.

'Person who rescued Duke from our broods.'

Continued silence.

'Look I realize that we're not exactly in the midsts of peace talks, but I don't see how it's possible you've never even heard of Jim Raynor.' said the Cerebrate.

 _'_ _Cerebrate, just because the terrans are a threat doesn't mean we have to learn their names.'_ said Zasz. _'Now focus on expanding the hive clusters.'_

'Alright, alright,' said the Cerebrate 'I'm going to colonize one of the unoccupied islands. Happy?'

* * *

A few days later as he tended to his newly established hive cluster, the Cerebrate was approached by Zasz. The other cerebrate looked genuinely worried. _'Cerebrate, be warned.'_ said Zasz _'While Daggoth is occupied with the forces of the Dominion, the emanations of the chrystalis have called even more of our enemies to Char!'_

With that warning the red armored terrans descended like a thunderbolt. Tides of wraiths attacked the outlying hives on the southern island. The spore colonies were overwhelmed and with their fall came an onslaught of dropships. Out of them poured marines and tanks who mowed down the defenders. Some marines died, but others took their place and the zerg were slaughtered as the tanks entered siege mode and began to shell the areas around. The Cerebrate wanted to go to their aid with his forces, but a will stronger than his own held him back.

He forced his strength against it, straining to muster his armies to assail the terrans, yet he could not break free of it's grip. What was happening? What was the source of this power? Then he realized what it was.

'The chrystalis holds me back?!' he cried 'What is the meaning of this?!'

He received no answer, and the assault continued.

Another assault had fallen on the eastern hives, even as the first of the southern ones was destroyed. As the blue terrans advanced along the southern island, mobile terran structures descended and landed in their place. Still more reinforcements came to aid them. The Cerebrate could crush them all! If he but moved now he could wipe them out! Swarms came from all over the surrounding islands to aid them, but the blue armored terrans massacred them with ease. And he could do nothing to help them.

The cursed thing was forcing him with its will to remain still. And across the island chain he could sense terrans descending and laying to waste the hives. And he could do nothing. He was at the point of despair, but at that moment he felt the Overmind's presence, almost gentle. **_'These too shall be eradicated by your hand Cerebrate, for you grow more cunning with each passing battle. Indeed, you are a testament to my will and the fury of the swarm._**

 ** _Yet first must you stay your wrath, and watch over the chrysalis a while longer. For the very hour of the sleeper's rebirth is at hand, and soon my greatest creation shall be loosed.'_**

Now the Cerebrate understood. The chrystalis had been allowed to hold him back, the Overmind could have broken it by force. Yet the Overmind wished to test him further, and allow the terrans to deploy the whole of their force so that they could not easily withdraw. The loss of a dozen hives was small price for the destruction of a single terran army, for the terrans could not replace their forces as easily.

Only by failing the Overmind could the Cerebrate frustrate his will, and yet even in his failures he would create the means by which glorious evolution would continue. Yet from the chrystalis the Cerebrate sensed fear, frustration, and sorrow, reluctance seeking to frustrate the will of the Overmind. Yet this would not come to pass.

The swarm would prevail.

The Cerebrate thus began to muster his defenses as the humans turned their attention to his hive clusters. He'd established dominion over two islands, and had three clusters in all. For a few minutes they were still mobilizing and then the Cerebrate heard a voice, and he hated it. 'All right. All crews stay frosty and keep your eyes peeled for our target. Remember, just because our old pal General Duke is creepin around doesn't mean we can get careless. We're up against the zerg here, so let's keep it together and hope this trip wasn't a big mistake…'

James Raynor. On Mar Sara he had inspired the colonists to obliterate their forces in that region. And then on Antiga Prime he had destroyed the zerg hives even as the swarm had had Alpha Squadron at its mercy. Because of him billions of zerg were utterly destroyed at Tarsonis, when otherwise the planet might have had easy prey. He more than any other was the arcitect of this invasion. And now he had come to Char to finish the work he had begun on Mar Sara all that time ago.

But that would not happen.

The terrans came from the east and the south on many dropships. The Cerebrate had a number of queens sent parasitic creatures onto the dropships, to watch where they were going. They landed on the surface of the islands and launched their assault in earnest. They rushed against the zergs defenses, and many hydralisks died in defense of the hive cluster. Sunken colonies were beaten by endless torrents of gunfire, and collapsed in on themselves. Yet the terrans paid a grevious price for it, as the two sides clashed in mortal combat.

Siege tanks landed and began to shell the sunken colonies. Mutalisks swarmed to assault them, and several were destroyed. Yet goliaths arrived in dropships and shot them down by the dozens in moments. One of the sunken colonies fell, and the terrans advanced. Hydralisks came in overlords and reinforced the failing defense line.

On and on the combat waged. Yet though the terrans gained ground, the Cerebrate took satisfaction in the fact that many more of them were dying than the swarm. Even so, the chrystalis was now under threat.

 _'_ _Cerebrate!'_ said Zasz _'The chrysalis is opening! Do not allow any terrans near it!'_

Then Raynor entered the combat with fresh forces. Rallying his men, he drove the zerg back step by step. The Cerebrate was failing! He would not fail! Pulling his hydralisks back to the sunken colony he turned to make a final stand.

Then a crack appeared in the chrystalis. A beam of light shot from that crack, then widened as the chrystalis burst apart and the Cerebrate saw her. Until now he had viewed the chrystalis as a burden, baggage which must be protected. Yet it was only as he saw the creature that had emerged from it, a perfect merging of both zerg and protoss, that he understood fully the Overmind's will.

He realized in that moment that he had _always_ known that she was within the chrystalis. So that now as he saw her for the first time with senses other than memory his response was not 'What are you?' but 'So it was you all along.'

 ** _'_** ** _Arise my daughter,'_** said the Overmind. **_'arise… Kerrigan.'_**

It was as if things had clicked suddenly into place. That central purpose which had remained within him all his existence, even before he had been conscious of his life was now at last made plain. It was as though he had been a warrior strain, trapped within an egg, waiting until the time that he was fully formed. Now as he saw the Overminds creation he understood that until now he had not been complete. He had been no more whole than a larva that crawled upon the grounds of a hive cluster and supposed itself at the end of its evolution.

'By your will, Father,' Kerrigan cried. 'I live to serve… Let all who oppose the Overmind feel the wrath of the swarm!'

 ** _'_** ** _Well done Cerebrate,'_** said the Overmind **_'what I have wrought this day shall be the undoing of my enemies! Let not a terran survive!'_**

'Mother of god…' said Raynor 'Kerrigan what have they done to you!'

The servants of Raynor lost their will to fight. As one they fled from the swarm as fresh broods arrived to support the assault. Kerrigan led the broods forward at the Cerebrates will, and he felt a feral joy. Raynor and his forces withdrew too a defensive position on the eastern island, but that would be no safe haven. He had arrayed his defenses better than Duke, but watching from the dropships the Cerebrate had seen a gap in his defenses.

Overlords crossed the lava and from them poured forth armies of hydralisks and at their head came the Queen of the Swarm. The hydralisks mowed down everything in sight, killing more and more terrans with every passing moment, crushing at the defense. Their Queen carved through the terrans like a scythe through wheat, her claws and blades cutting through neo steel like it was a thin member of flesh. By her will alone she crushed a dozen marines to death in moments. Many others were carved down by her claws and the blades on her back.

Though only a small part of it was present, throughout the sector the whole of the swarm rejoiced and as once rushed against their enemies, who looked up in fear at some force they could not understand which had at last come into its own and looked upon them in contempt.

The remaining terrans formed a line and fired into the ranks of the swarm en masse. Siege tanks fired their grounds to kill the zerg. Marines concentrated their fire. Goliaths unleashed machinegune fire. On any other day it would have been a formidable defense, yet not today. Today the swarm heeded no more its casualties than the mightiest ultralisk would heed the biting of the tiniest gnat in the universe.

The defense was driven in. The center of the terrans command was shattered, and Raynor himself and a small set of soldiers were cornered and surrounded. The Cerebrate urged his brood forward, to slaughter the wretched creature. To put it down once and for all with final vengeance.

Yet the Queen of the Swarm stopped him. 'No.' she said 'The human is mine.'

'Oh you want to kill him yourself then.' said the Cerebrate 'Fine, I'll cede you the honor.'

'Sarah,' said Raynor 'is that really you?'

'To an extent…' said Kerrigan 'I'm far more than I once was, Jim. You shouldn't have come here.'

Okay, first the gloating, then she'd kill him.

'But the dreams…' said Raynor 'I dreamed that you were still alive… That somehow… you were calling to me.'

'I was.' said Kerrigan 'While I was in the chrysalis, I instinctively reached out to you and Arcturus telepathically. Apparently Arcturus sent you and Duke here to rescue me. But that was then, Jim. I am one of the zerg, now. And I like what I am. You can't imagine how this feels…'

'I can and I can't see any reason not to kill him!' said the Cerebrate.

'So what?' asked Raynor 'Are you gonna kill me now, darling?'

Even Raynor understood the situation. So why didn't she just get it over with?

'It is certainly within my power.' said Kerrigan.

'What are you waiting for kill

'But you're not a threat to me Jim.' said Kerrigan.

'He is.' said the Cerebrate. 'Can we at least kill all his men?'

'Be smart.' said Kerrigan 'Leave here now and never seek to confront the zerg again.'

'Doesn't look like I have much choice.' noted Raynor.

Thus Raynor was allowed to get away. As his dropships and movable buildings flew away into the sunset Kerrigan watched it happen. The Cerebrate decided to state the obvuous.'

'You do realize that he's just going to redeploy his forces to attack us somewhere else, don't you?' asked the Cerebrate. 'He isn't going to quit just because you tell him to.'

'I'll make my own judgements Cerebrate.' said Kerrigan.

'Oh I'm sure you will.' said the Cerebrate. 'But you're wrong.'

This was not a satisfactory conclusion at all. Obviously the Cerebrate was going to have to explain to Kerrigan the facts of being part of the swarm. He noted that, true to his word, Raynor and his men began to evacuate the region, leaving behind them a location that was ripe for hive clusters. Lesser cerebrates had failed the Overmind and lost those regions, and in so doing allowed them to be taken and used to threaten the chrystalis.

Now the Cerebrate claimed them and began to create a new hive cluster in the name of the Overmind, from which new warriors broods would arise.

* * *

Raynor was making his report, voice frantic. '…and with the mission as good as failed, I pulled out. My boys and I are back in orbit now. She's just… gone. I looked in her eyes, and I saw the Sarah I knew, but it was all twisted out of shape into something… something else.'

'Jim, focus.' said Arcturus 'There are greater things at stake her than Lieutenant Kerrigan. I need you back in the field.'

'Where?' asked Raynor 'Look you didn't see her in action, okay. She slaughtered nearly a hundred men like it was nothing, and that was ignoring the Cerebrate guarding her. Their both way more dangerous than anything we've run into.'

'True enough.' said Mengsk 'However Char is a big planet, and thanks to Kerrigan's reprieve your forces remain intact. Dispatch them to a location where you can link up with General Duke. From there you will continue purging hive clusters.

Unless you think we should keep our word to a horde of alien locusts?'

'…Yeah,' said Raynor 'yeah I've got you. I'll send my boys down now.'

They weren't out of this just yet. Not by a long shot. And Raynor wasn't sure that was a good thing.

From where Kerrigan was sitting in the infested command center, listening the Cerebrate remained pointedly silent. Was she actually going to learn from this or…

'Shut up Cerebrate.' said Kerrigan.

'I didn't say anything.' the Cerebrate replied.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Okay so here we have the epic appearance of infested Kerrigan. Not much else to say. I had originally intended for Raynor to have his forces utterly devastated to a small remnant, but the characters conspired against me. So I guess here we are.


	5. The Amerigo

**Chapter Five: The Amerigo**

 _The casualties resulting from the Battle of Char continued to rise day and night. Thousands upon thousands of men had been sent there now, and more were being sent all the time. Soldiers who fought in battles against the zerg were given special bonus payments if they agreed to go to Char. Yet with how the zerg were attacking they were dying at an alarming rate._

 _I heard men tell stories about how they would have to stay awake for days at a time, firing into unending tides of zerg. How a careless step could send you plunging into magma for a swift and horrible death. How great storms would ravage the outposts, choking those who were walking around without protecting._

 _Sometimes all three of these things would happen at once._

 _-Liberty's reports, volume II_

* * *

In the aftermath of Raynor's 'defeat' the Terran Dominion pulled its forces out from that part of the planet. They then promptly redeployed them to a section of the planet where the Queen of the Zerg was not present. Even now they were bolstering Alpha Squadron to continue the battle against Daggoth's brood, which was well beyond the Cerebrate's ability to affect. And all the while Kerrigan brooded silently to herself, the Cerebrate had had all he could take.

'I told you!' snapped the Cerebrate. 'We should have killed Raynor when we had the chance! Slain his men, and devastated his bases! Infested his command centers and slain all who opposed us!

Instead, the Dominion was defeated, but not destroyed! Even now they move against other hive clusters on Char!'

Zasz agreed with him, he could tell by his presence. Daggoth was preoccupied fighting the Dominion, but he seemed moderately annoyed by the fact that he was now facing twice as many terrans as he had been before. Kerrigan was either oblivious to the fact that the two most senior cerebrates were doing the psionic presence equivelent of glaring daggers at her.

Eventually, she addressed the Cerebrate.

'Cerebrate,' said Kerrigan 'you watched over me during my incubation, and I am grateful to you. It is my wish that you continue your vigil so that I might strengthen my powers to better aid the swarm.'

'Yes, and I'm happy to hear that Kerry.' snapped the Cerebrate 'But our situation has not improved.' The nickname seemed to annoy her, and he decided to use it in the future.

'I have been unable to access the totality of my latent powers, and as such, I would like to infiltrate a terran science vessel and uncover the secrets of their abandoned ghost projects.' Kerrigan continued 'If I can learn more about their mental conditioning I can undo the damage their tinkering scientists have done to my mind.'

'Stop pretending as if I'm not saying anything and address my point!' roared the Cerebrate in frustration.

At that moment Zasz set himself between them. His presence was stern. _'Though you be the favored servant of the Overmind, you would do well to remember that you are just a servant. You know of our grand mission, Kerrigan. Would you put your personal whims before the will of the Overmind?'_

At this Kerrigan grew angry. 'Do not cross me, Zasz. I will do as I see fit, and not you or any other Cerebrate shall stand in my way.'

 ** _'_** ** _Let her go Zasz,'_** said the Overmind **_'the greatness of her spirit has been left to her; that the swarms might benefit from her fierce example.'_**

'You mean the "fierce example" of not killing Jim Raynor and his men after I beat them?' asked the Cerebrate 'Or do you mean that speech she made when she hatched?' There was a stunned silence, during which the Cerebrate realized he had snarked out the Overmind. Even Kerrigan was staring at him incredulously.

Fortunately, this seemed to amuse the Overmind and what might have been psionic laughter echoed. **_'Fear not her design, for she is bound to me as intimately as any Cerebrate. Truly, no zerg can stray from my will, for all that you are lies wholly within me. Kerrigan is free to do as she desires.'_**

 _'_ _By your will, Overmind.'_ said Zasz _'Cerebrate, you must see that she comes to no harm.'_

Then a group of hydralisks, larger and fiercer than all the others appeared. There was in their eyes a vicious cunning which the Cerebrate knew to mean they were greater than any other zerg of their kind. They were the hunter killers.

 **'** **Take these, the deadliest of my minions.'** said Daggoth **'They will aid in your search.'**

'Thank you Daggoth.' said the Cerebrate.

He followed Kerrigan from the hatchery into the wastes where the lava rivers were particularly explosive today. 'So, Kerry. How exactly do you propose to board this science vessel?'

'It is called the Amerigo.' said Kerrigan 'And during the evacuation, Jim left behind a number of dropships. I nudged him to do so, it wasn't too difficult since the people who would have been transported by them were all dead. Duke also left some others behind as well.'

'Glorious,' said the Cerebrate 'unfortunately for you I was born of the mental screams of millions of terrans whose minds were copied by the Overmind as they died by the hand of his swarm. I know enough about terran naval security measures to realize that it will take more than a terran vessel to gain entrance to a military ship.'

'Your right,' said Kerrigan 'any ship which wanted to get on board without codes would have to explain itself in a face to face conversation. Fortunately, I took commander rank codes from Jimmy's mind. They won't see an identified dropship, but rather Commander Raynor.'

'…And if he had been killed,' realized the Cerebrate 'or forced to withdraw because you decimated his forces, it would have been suspicious.'

'You see, Cerebrate.' said Kerrigan 'There is a method to my madness.'

'I'm beginning to see why the Overmind favors you, Kerry.' mused the Cerebrate. 'Still, your method has costs.'

'Jim should have known better.' said Kerrigan.

'Does anything about him indicate to you that he knows anything?' asked the Cerebrate.

'Shut up.' said Kerrigan 'He wants to stay on Char? Fine, I'll humor him. Load the dropships full of your swarm Cerebrate. We'll only need one of them for the Amerigo.'

The Cerebrate had a warm fuzzy feeling about all this. He could only assume that a great many terrans were about to die horribly. He made all the arrangements.

While he was operating he choose to follow Kerrigan's connection to Raynor and see how he reacted. If he wised up to what was happening they would have to change strategies quickly. It would not due for Kerrigan to be blown out of the sky.

* * *

Raynor looked over the defenses her had erected and watched as the might of the swarm was unleashed against them. He had managed to destroy several hives, but it wasn't long before his boys ended up getting attacked by huge numbers of zerg. Well more than they could handle, and a whole lot of them had been killed before they could take a defensive position.

Now from a fortified compound on a hill, he watched as endless tides of zerg threw themselves against their defenses. As wave after wave of zerglings were killed, wraiths dueled with mutalisks and tried to keep the guardians of the swarm from getting too near. The roar of siege tanks, the sound of goliaths unleashing their payloads at aerial targets.

It had all blurred together. Every so often there came lulls in the fighting, but it was never long enough to launch an assault. It was the same damn story across all the other parts of Raynor's Raiders. They could kill a hell of a lot of zerg, but they were being assaulted too heavily. Eventually, he opened a channel to Alpha Squadron.

Duke appeared. 'What?'

'Duke,' said Raynor 'my boys and I are pinned down. Can you launch an assault on the zerg while we're holding them in place.'

'I can't believe this!' said Duke 'Alpha Squadron officers would never hand out their access codes to rank and file men! That's what I call sloppy!' Oh, that wasn't good, he'd have to speed up his plans.

'Duke back up a sec.' said Raynor 'What are you talking about?'

'A couple of your dropships,' said Duke 'are docking with a bunch of different transports using Commander rank codes. And here you are on the ground! What do you think the Dominion military is, a militia?'

Raynor remembered how he had ordered a number of dropships left behind so they could get away quicker. It didn't make sense in retrospect, but it had made perfect sense at the time. Then he remembered how during Kerrigan's assault he'd suddenly been thinking about his access codes. His eyes widened as things clicked.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!' said Raynor, cutting the channel and opening another. 'This is Commander James Raynor of the Dominion armada to all Dominion vessels in the orbit of Char! My access codes have been stolen by the zerg! Disregard it's use! I repeat! Disregard all use of my codes!'

'This is Captain Matt Horner sir.' said a voice. 'What are you talking about?'

'Just acknowledge the order and follow it damn you!' roared Raynor.

'…Sir,' said Matt 'the dropships have already docked in our transports and Duke's science vessel. I'm getting reports of the zerg are attacking! One is about to dock with us!'

'Close the hanger bay doors!' roared Raynor.

'I can't! I tried!' said Matt 'They are using your command override!'

'Damn it,' said Raynor 'can you override that?'

'No sir,' said Matt 'that would defeat the purpose of having a command override!'

'That ship can't be allowed to dock!' said Raynor 'Is there anything you can do to get clear?'

'…Well, sir, I could initiate an emergency jump to warp space,' said Matt 'but it would be risky. There is no telling where we might end up.'

'Fine,' said Raynor 'it's our only chance! Get the hell out of here!'

'If we jump without warming up the engines we'll have to make repairs, sir!' said Matt 'It'll strand you down there!'

'Do it goddamn it, before everyone on the Hyperion dies!' roared Raynor.

'…Yes sir.' said Matt. 'Good luck Jim.'

'Good luck Matt.'

Wasn't all this a little overcomplicated, wondered the Cerebrate. The solution was so obvious, how had Raynor not seen? He supposed he should be glad but it was perplexing that anyone could be that stupid.

The channel cut out, and Raynor leaned against the wall of the compound. His transports had been invaded by zerg. They were empty, and the security personnel on board were minimal. Chances were that everyone in those ships were going to be dead in a few minutes. He only hoped the Hyperion got away before the vessels landed.

Then he remembered that Duke's science vessel had been seized as well. He had to tell Duke, and quick. So he opened a channel, sweating. Duke looked smug when he appeared. 'Problem with discipline, Marshall Raynor?'

'Shut the fuck up, Duke!' roared Raynor 'Most of my transport just got infested, and the Hyperion had to make an emergency jump. We're stranded. And one of your science vessels might be infested as well.'

'How the hell did the zerg get your access codes?' asked Duke. '…You found her, didn't you?'

'Figured Arcturus would have filled you in.' said Raynor.

'Alright,' said Duke 'I'll take care of it. The heads up may be of some use. Now, what was that question you asked before?' It was probably the closest Duke would ever get to saying thank you.

'I need to know if you can hit the zerg?' asked Raynor 'We're being hit hard here, and we'd appreciate it if Alpha Squadron could draw off some of the heat.'

'Right,' said Duke 'we're having a slow day, I'll see about it.'

Half his fleet had been trashed. Now Raynor had only two chances. Hold out until evac could arrive, or kill every last zerg on Char. He turned the safety off his gun and went to join his men in the defense. The natives were getting restless.

Being one of the natives in question, the Cerebrate departed to pay attention to the raid on the terran starships. His forces overrun their poorly staffed forces, killing everything in sight. Yet the Amerigo raid was about to begin.

* * *

Bim and Maddock were marines on the science vessel Amerigo. Being security personnel was a cushy job, usually reserved for veterans. At the moment things were more interesting than ever. Apparently, Commander Raynor himself was coming to the Amerigo, though what his interest was in the science vessel was unknown. The head of research himself was now standing before the airlock, hands clasped behind his back and the most dignified expression he could manage.

Bim yawned inside his helmet. This was going to be good, reflected the Cerebrate who was reading his thoughts.

The airlock doors opened and the scientist spoke. 'Commander Raynor, we were honored to hear that-' He saw standing before him the Queen of the Swarm and the assembled broods she had brought with her. '-shit! Open fire!' Then he made a break for it.

The marines hesitated for a moment and that was too long. The zerg swarmed out over them, slaughtering the reception party to the man. Kerrigan stepped over their corpses, leading the marines up the stairs as sirens began to blare.

The head of research made the door and opened it before rushing in. The door shut and locked behind him. It bought him only a moment as Kerrigan raised a hand. The metal bent and broke before the door was thrown inward. A number of marines standing in front of the door were crushed and Kerrigan and her broods filled the halls.

The Cerebrate kept his broods in check, following Kerrigan's lead. As they went through the halls civilians fled in terror, locking doors behind them. The Cerebrate wanted to pursue them, but Kerrigan reigned him in mentally. 'Stay focused Cerebrate. We're not here for the scientists. Just their data logs.'

'I will never understand this affection you hold these wretches in, Kerry.' mused the Cerebrate as they moved through the halls. 'What possible appeal could they possess that compares with the swarm?'

'You don't know what you're talking about Cerebrate.' said Kerrigan.

'Oh yes I do.' said the Cerebrate 'I know that even by their standards you were denied any dignity. They broke you, reshaped you, turned you into a weapon and turned you loose. Yet where the swarm accepts every creature, low and high, and glories in their fulfillment of their chosen purpose, you were ostracized. Feared. Your very purpose was to compel by crude force that which your miserable race could not accomplish through will alone.

You were saved, reshaped by gentler means, transformed into a weapons of a different kind and turned loose again. And then, finally, abandoned. What crude companionship the terrans might have offered is nothing compared to the embrace of the swarm. The bond all of us share with the Overmind is deeper and more intimate than any human companionship could ever be.

Why then, do you still linger on thoughts of the terran Raynor?'

'You begin to annoy me Cerebrate.' said Kerrigan in anger. 'But don't think that I need you. Should you become a nuisance I'll kill you myself.'

'You know that I can't die, right?' asked the Cerebrate. 'What are you going to do, stab me to death? I don't even have a proper physical form, just a biomass which I use to direct my operations from. Destroying that is meaningless.

And since I command the army any hypothetical fight between you and me would basically consist of me throwing broods at you until you got tired and died.'

They rounded the corner and saw group of marines standing on a raised walkway. Beneath them were zerglings and they were firing into the pens. There were hundreds of zerglings in every pen. 'See,' said one 'they ain't so tough! These critters bleed just like anybody else!' Then they looked up to see the zerg and raised their guns. 'We've got company!'

Kerrigan was on them in moments. They fired blindly to no avail as she tore them to pieces with absolute ease. Then when all were dead Kerrigan opened the pen doors, and the zerglings joined them. Even so, the Cerebrate was beginning to think his presence here was somewhat superfluous.

They departed with their newly bolstered forces and rushed round a bend to find a hall filled with Alpha Squadron marines who had formed ranks. Their guns were trailed on the edge of the hall, and they were grim faced and steady.

'You'll never make it out of here alive, bitch!' said a soldier.

The battle began in earnest. Many of the zerglings were killed in the opening assault, but the rest reached the line and began tearing through the marines. The hunter killers fired their spines into the terran ranks, killing many of them in moments as they slithered forward to tear marines apart with razor sharp claws.

Yet Kerrigan was far more deadly. Three marines to death with one stroke then killed six with her next stroke. Soon the line was broken and they were rushing onwards. Little else came to resist them after that, occasional security personnel would bar their path in vain.

At last, they came to a room with many scientists within.

'She's infested!' cried a man 'Stay away from her!'

'Call for help!'

They fled to the far side of the wall and Kerrigan made her way over to the console, ignoring their panic and typing in quickly. She had grabbed the access codes from the head scientists mind earlier. Now she was filtering through it.

As he waited the Cerebrate reached out and felt the mind of one of the scientists. Within it he saw many things, and one in particular troubled him. The stars would one day expand and burn everything around them to nothingness. The universe was constantly expanding. One day it would expand until nothing was left, the very fabric of reality would have been stretched out of existence.

This concept, entropy, troubled him. For his terran memories seemed to confirm it.

Yet that could not be. The Overmind was eternal. The Overmind was all powerful. It could not one day end, could it? These terrans and their vaunted scientist must surely be mistaken.

Then Kerrigan looked up. 'Cerebrate, I've located the records I sought. We have everything we need here.'

 **'** **Kerrigan,'** said Daggoth **'I suggest you leave behind some hunter killers to keep the terrans off our trail.'**

'No need for that.' said Kerrigan 'We're leaving.'

More than three times as many terrans had died before the Cerebrates assault as he had lost. He felt very proud of himself for that.

* * *

Later, within the infested command center Kerrigan was listening to the Dominion networks again. Despite himself the Cerebrate was actually interested in how the terrans would respond to the recent defeats. Arcturus Mengsk was on the line with Jim Raynor as he listened to his report.

'Jim…' said Mengsk, voice calm 'were your weapon systems malfunctioning?'

'Um, no.' said Raynor.

'Was the dropship protected by an invincible energy shield which cannot be pierced by any mortal weapon?' asked Arcturus, voice accusing.

'No, but-'

'Then why didn't you just order Mr. Horner to blow the dropship attempting to dock out of the sky!?' roared Arcturus.

'I…' Raynor paused. 'I didn't think about that at the time.' What an incredibly weak excuse.

'The Hyperion is one of the most deadly battlecruisers in the fleet.' said Mengsk, voice breaking out with scarcely restrained fury. 'It possesses firepower capable of leveling cities, firepower which you were a direct witness to in the battle of the Ion Cannon and you **didn't think use it against a defenseless enemy transport?!'**

'I… no Arcturus.' said Raynor 'I didn't think to do that. Sorry.'

'Jim,' said Mengsk, regaining control of himself. 'if my flagship has been sent to the opposite side of the universe because you weren't familiar with that fact that it could blow things up, it is nothing personal, but I'm going to have to send a ghost to kill you!

As soon as you make contact with Mr. Horner again you will immediately familiarize yourself with every system of the Hyperion. In the meantime, you will spend the remainder of this campaign contemplating all possible meanings of the words 'stranded' and 'reassigned to Braxis.'

'Yeah, I uh… I understand sir.'

'I'm contacting my other tactical minds.' said Mengsk 'It remains to be seen how we can salvage this… fiasco.'

'Yes sir.' said Raynor.

The channel cut out. Kerrigan was smiling.

'Why didn't he think of blowing the dropships out of the sky?' asked the Cerebrate 'Did you somehow influence his judgment calls? It really makes no sense that he'd forget an asset so basic to his vessel.'

'No.' said Kerrigan 'Jim is good at inspiring the men and leading from the front. He's smart on the fly, but he isn't cut out for command of this level. He's out of his element. It's why I let him live.'

'Sure it is.' muttered the Cerebrate, annoyed.

'I wonder if Arcturus was joking?' wondered Kerrigan.

'You worked with him for years.' said the Cerebrate 'You tell me.'

'Yeah, but I could never read him.' admitted Kerrigan 'His thoughts are constantly shifting. Even surface thoughts are difficult to find with him. He's slippery.'

'Either way,' said the Cerebrate 'do you believe the information you found will help you gain additional power?'

'It may take a bit of time.' admitted Kerrigan 'But I should be able to restore myself to how I once was.'

'Good.'

Dead silence. 'Are you sure I can't kill Raynor-'

'Yes.' said Kerrigan.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

This chapter, in a way, marks the real establishment of the Cerebrate as a character. When I write a POV character in an RTS I try to write them in a method which gives them good chemistry with the speaking cast. Serena struck a balance between Kerrigan's professionalism, Mengsk's vision, Raynor's gung ho attitude, and… well not much from Duke, beyond a tendency to be somewhat spiteful.

With the Cerebrate I tried to do the same. Kerrigan is the ruthless blood knight, Zasz is the cerebrate with seniority who doesn't appreciate a new upstart taking his place. Daggoth is focused totally on the will of the Overmind, and the Overmind is the godlike all-controlling entity. So I figured I'd make the Cerebrate a balance, making him a blood knight, concerned with the wellbeing of the swarm who doesn't put up with Kerrigan's crap, even if he likes her.

Also, in Queen of Blades, why didn't Raynor just order Matt to blow up the enemy transports? Seriously it makes no sense, and its a critical plot point that Matt has to make an emergency jump. Just saying that they were within minimum range would have been enough, but I guess that would have made too much sense.


	6. The Dark Templar

**Chapter Six: The Dark Templar**

 _Just as people thought the battle for Char would end in stalemate, and Arcturus Mengsk would finally pull his men out of there, new hope arrived. A glorious armada of protoss arrived to assist in the offensive. Mengsk took this chance to double, triple, and quadruple down, and send even more troops to reinforce the assault._

 _It probably helped that in the terran sector the fleet had been having a slow few weeks. The Squadron territories weren't doing much more than skirmishing with the Dominion, and the zerg had been pretty quiet. Aside from finishing off some hive clusters remaining on a few worlds, things were pretty rosy. And all the while the pool of armed manpower grew as Serena Calabas' manic use of universal conscription turned the colonies into military organizations._

 _That was why even more soldiers, freshly experienced from the campaigns in terran worlds, were sent to the swarm's throne world in a surge of tens of thousands. The idea was to end the war in one swift stroke._

 _-Liberty's report, II_

* * *

Some time later there was a sudden sensation that coursed through the Cerebrate. It came from the outlying hives in the uninhabited part of the planet Char. He shuddered at the familiar sensation, and from the way Kerrigan tensed he knew she had sensed it as well. Even as he sensed it psionic energy was tearing through the hives. Hydralisks were torn apart, mutalisks were shot from the sky.

With the bulk of their broods deployed to halt the terran incursions the enemy ripped through many lesser hive clusters before they were halted. Lesser Cerebrates were working to halt them. For the moment they had succeeded.

'Do you feel that Cerebrate?' she asked 'The protoss are here. On Char. They have been for some time… hiding.' She motioned and sent forth a psionic call. 'Protoss Commander, it was folly of you to come here! For I am Kerrigan and I am Queen of the Zerg!'

'I know of you well, O Queen of the Zerg.' said a mocking voice. 'For we have met before. I am Tassadar of the Templar, I remember your selfless exploits defending humanity from the zerg. Unfortunate to see that one who was once so honorable and full of life, should succumb to the twisted wiles of the Overmind.' His voice was disappointed, as though Kerrigan had been undergoing a test and failed it quite spectacularly.

'Do not presume to judge me, Templar.' snapped Kerrigan 'You'll find my powers are more than a match for yours. In fact, I sense that your vaunted power has diminished since last we met.'

'Mayhap O Queen,' came the reply 'or perhaps I merely need not flaunt my power in such an infantile test of will.'

'Foolish Templar, prepare your defenses.' said Kerrigan 'I will come for you soon.'

Then the channel was cut and they were in silence. The Cerebrate looked up. 'Do you think protoss have a different definition of honor from terrans?'

'What?' said Kerrigan.

'Well I mean Tassadar called you honorable, but that just doesn't add up.' replied the Cerebrate 'Unless I'm mistaken you were a ruthless professional assassin who attacked by stealth without defiance sent, which is generally considered dishonorable.'

'Well I was still fighting the zerg-' she began.

'Don't listen to him Kerry!' said the Cerebrate 'You never defended humanity against the zerg. Your primary contribution to Mengsk's campaign was spreading discord throughout Antiga Prime and helping create a terran civil was while we walked in unopposed. Raynor and Calabas were the ones who destroyed all the zerg hives, not you.'

'I was too involved in the campaign against the zerg.' said Kerrigan, seeming annoyed for reasons beyond his comprehension.

'Really? How?' asked the Cerebrate.

Kerrigan remained silent for a moment, looking down at her feet. '…Well, I was in charge of organizing the militia.'

'To do what?' asked the Cerebrate.

'To hold ground that the Sons of Korhal and Alpha Squadron had already taken.' she said.

'Okay, so you did have some slight effect on the swarm. And that was pretty bad.' said the Cerebrate 'But you were all in favor of luring the zerg down onto Antiga Prime and letting us kill everyone while the Sons of Korhal cut and run. Your heart was in the right place.

Also very pragmatic.'

'Do you have a point Cerebrate?'

'My point is that Tassadar is wrong about you.' said the Cerebrate 'Absolutely. You did not defend humanity against the swarm. You were not honorable. And if anything you were a huge help to us by raising rebellion during our invasion.'

'Are you insinuating that I am incompetent?' she asked, an edge in her tone.

'It was a compliment.' said the Cerebrate. 'Also you've never met Tassadar before this point.'

'Yes I have.' said Kerrigan 'It was…' She faltered.

'He spent the entire campaign in the terran sector eradicating worlds from on high.' said the Cerebrate. 'He never directly entered the combat until Tarsonis, and you weren't even on the planet at the time. There is, quite literally, no period of time where you could have possibly met Tassadar. It simply doesn't exist.'

'…Can we just get on with this, okay.' said Kerrigan 'I just felt like I knew him. Or like some part of me did. Like… he had always been there. And I didn't exactly think it was me talking.'

'Those are called paranoid delusions, Kerry.' said the Cerebrate 'Your Overlord awaits.'

Kerrigan and the Cerebrate traveled across Char towards the source of the protoss signal. During this time several other hives fell to the protoss. As they journeyed, Kerrigan reached out with her mind and summoned to her the various zerg. Great numbers of zerglings and hydralisks rallied behind them, and mutalisks filled the sky. The Cerebrate sensed around him the sheer numbers.

'These are not my broods.' he realized 'You are calling them from other Cerebrates.'

'The swarm is mine.' said Kerrigan 'I will do with it as I will.'

The ground beneath the overlord was crawling with the forces of the zerg as they mustered to support them. The Cerebrate went ahead, troubled and arrived on a plateau directly bordering where the protoss had been attacking. Here he erected many great sunken and spore colonies to defend the colony while the swarm arrived. It took several days and its completion was not a moment too soon either, for no sooner had he established his fortifications the protoss attacked.

Vast waves of zealots arrived to tear through swarms of hydralisks and zerglings. The sunken colonies tore through them, and many exploded into surges of psionic energy, but more were on their way. In moments several of the sunken colonies had fallen. Then strange scarab like machines unleashed balls of blue light. They bounced around and in moments tore through hundreds of zerg before exploding on the sunken colonies.

Protoss ships surged against the flank to meet his spore colonies in battle. Acid and blue energy traded fire. The defenses were straining to the limit.

Then the mutalisks arrived. They fell upon the reavers, yes that was what the protoss called them, and destroyed them before turning their attention to the ground war. The protoss aerial assault was repulsed and the remaining protoss withdrew.

It was interesting, however, for the residual energy of the protoss gave the Cerebrate an insight. He sensed anger, reckless hatred of the swarm. They regarded the swarm as an abomination for the very reasons that the Cerebrate knew it to be sacred.

They were all connected. Yet they were independent at once. It was a contradiction the Cerebrate did not understand. How could they be one, yet at once independent? Could every protoss be a Cerebrate of sorts?

No that could not be.

Kerrigan arrived and looked over the devastation wrought on the defenses and the thousands of dead zerg. 'You've been busy, Cerebrate. Where are the protoss bodies?'

'The protoss don't leave bodies.' said the Cerebrate 'When they are killed their bodies are reduced to pure psionic energy. Thus we are unable to infest them.'

'I see.' said Kerrigan 'That makes sense.'

Then Zasz was present. The other cerebrate was concerned, the Cerebrate could sense it. Zasz had noticed how Kerrigan was drawing off large sections of the swarm, and in so doing was leaving many hive clusters poorly defended. 'Kerrigan, I sense something strange about this Templar. Perhaps you should reconsider your attack.'

'For the last time Zasz, you question my motives and ability at your own peril.' said Kerrigan.

'You dare threaten a Cerebrate?!' said Zasz. 'You will be the doom of us all!'

Zasz's power was put forward and Kerrigan matched him. The two powers strove against one another, and the broods shifted uneasily as the two agents of the swarm did mental battle. Kerrigan had more raw power, but whatever minor victories Kerrigan gained, Zasz would simply shift his will. The air between them flashed with lightning.

Kerrigan raised a single hand, a small gesture symbolizing a much greater level of power put forth. Zasz strove against her still, and sweat dripped from Kerrigan's brow. Her hand was shaking, and Zasz still remained. Kerrigan took a step back and fell to one knee. Zasz was pressing the mental assault, for he was ages older and more experienced than her. It was only a matter of time now.

The Cerebrate stepped between them.

'Zasz, Kerrigan,' said the Cerebrate 'we should not be fighting amongst each other. The protoss are the true enemy. If we destroy them now it will safe guard the hive cluster.'

'…Very well.' said Zasz 'Cerebrate, I leave the matter in your hands. Kerrigan, you are a thousand years too early to be my equal.'

Then he was gone. Kerrigan was breathing heavily, gasping for air. Her whole form was shaking.

'Well, what did you expect?' asked the Cerebrate 'Zasz is millennia old. He is one of the chief servants of the Overmind. You didn't really think you could just walk all over him and Daggoth and expect for there not to be repercussions-'

'Shut up!'

'No I will not shut up.' said the Cerebrate 'Zasz is much older and wiser than both of us. You have no business treating him with such disrespect.'

'Enough!' said Kerrigan 'The time has come to press the assault.'

'Yes, yes, I've taken the locations of the protoss forces from the minds of those who fell to us.' said the Cerebrate 'The protoss have three primary colonies in this area. An outlying military installation to the east and south. And across the lava lake is their primary stronghold. From the looks of things, the protoss have been living here for some time.

As we encroached on their territory they called for help. Tassadar arrived and obliterating the outlying colonies, however he has judged the situation untenable and is withdrawing the civilian personnel back to Auir.' He paused. 'The protoss possess a powerful weapon called reavers. I have observed them believe they will make a ground offensive next to impossible.'

'I will be the judge of that.' said Kerrigan, and behind her came the assembled forces of the swarm. 'Minions, forward! We will crush the protoss to the east of here and lay waste to their pathetic city before they can withdraw back to Auir!'

'That seems like a waste of resources.' said the Cerebrate.

'I command here, Cerebrate. Not you.' snapped Kerrigan.

'Okay, fine. We'll try things your way.' said the Cerebrate 'Feel free to win without me.' He was sick of her constant tantrumd. 'I'll just observe.'

Kerrigan summoned her forces to her and led the charge herself. Massive forces of zerglings rushed ahead as they came towards the protoss. The protoss were not caught unprepared. A huge line of dragoons were arrayed before them and their photon cannons were soon unleashed, killing hundreds of zerglings. Kerrigan raised a hand and unleashed a massive psionic storm.

It wasn't very effective.

The reavers opened fire.

It was super effective. Thousands of zerg were consumed as they charged and those that survived were massacred by the dragoons. Kerrigan tried to rally her broods, only to be hit in the face with a reaver scarab. She screamed and hit the ground while her hydralisks began to open fire on the dragoons. Several of the protoss fell before the reavers fired again.

As the massacre continued Kerrigan urged her forces to retreat. She reappeared later, cloaked and the Cerebrate resisted the urge to say he told her so. 'Problem? Kerry?'

'Shut up.' she said.

'Okay Kerry, I think we may have rushed you into this whole tactics thing, so I'm going to establish some ground rules.' said the Cerebrate 'First, enemy casualties are good. Second, our casualties are bad.'

'Cerebrate…' she growled.

'This means that it is better to cause the enemy a lot of casualties, and not have many ourselves.' he said, oozing condescension.

'Stop talking to me like that!' she roared.

'I'm not talking to you like anything.' said the Cerebrate 'Now, in order to minimize casualties, you should target the enemies weak points. The protoss reavers can inflict massive casualties on our broods. That is why we should use air forces to attack them.'

'Yes, you've made your point. I tire of this.' said Kerrigan 'Mutalisks and guardians, go forth and crush the main protoss colony! Leave none alive!'

The Cerebrate almost panicked. 'No, don't do that that is a terrible plan! Kerrigan if you attack head on-'

'I will not tolerate dissension!' cried Kerrigan. 'The protoss are my prey and they will suffer my wrath!'

'-they will flank you.' finished the Cerebrate as the flyers rushed off.

'What?' said Kerrigan.

'As soon as you launch that assault on the primary base, you will be met by the full might of the protoss fleet.' said the Cerebrate.

Kerrigan's broods were met by the full might of the protoss fleet. Acid and missiles were traded to devastating effect on both sides.

'Well I…' began Kerrigan.

'These will keep our forces at bay for a lengthy amount of time.' said the Cerebrate.

There were casualties on both sides, but with support from dragoons and proton the protoss began to gain the advantage. The defense held firm.

'How are you-'

'At which point Tassadar will simply withdraw his dragoons from the outlying bases.' said the Cerebrate.

'Why didn't you-'

'And your forces will be surrounded and wiped out.' said the Cerebrate as Kerrigan's forces were surrounded and wiped out. 'There, did that go the way you thought it was going to go?'

'Why didn't you tell me that would happen?!' roared Kerrigan.

'Well you didn't want my opinion.' said the Cerebrate, concealing his true motivations. 'The protoss were your prey. They would suffer your wrath. Your highly ineffectual, highly predictable wrath.'

Kerrigan turned away. '…It hardly matters. Our forces are legion. What does it matter if a few flights of mutalisks and guardians are destroyed when we can call more to replace them?'

'You sound just like Zasz.' muttered the Cerebrate.

'What?!' said Kerrigan.

'Well… actually no.' said the Cerebrate, correcting himself. 'Zasz has actually thought his philosophy through and has taken steps to make it a viable strategy. You are simply taking the broods that other Cerebrates created and throwing them into a meat grinder, without regard for tactics or all the effort that went into creating said broods.'

'That is what Zasz does, is it not?' snapped Kerrigan.

'No, Zasz has a strategy of constant expansion so that even as one hive falls another is being created. Thus though the terrans and protoss may gain a dozen victories, the swarm remains strong. What you are doing is weakening our hive clusters defenses in pointless frontal assaults.

Speaking of which I took the liberty of beginning construction of new hive clusters on some of the cliffs around here.'

'Well if you are so confident in your own abilities, perhaps you would like to defeat them.' hissed Kerrigan.

'By all means, Kerry.' said the Cerebrate 'By all means.'

Now that Kerrigan had been totally discredited, the Cerebrate would prove himself able to do that which she could not. Today he would destroy the protoss, and in so doing reveal himself as the true greatest creation of the Overmind. Yes, he would earn the Overminds respect! He would be the greatest servant of the Overmind!

And nothing would stand in his way.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Okay, we'll finish up the Dark Templar next chapter. I took some liberties with this mission for several reasons. First of all, I wanted to give Tassadar a victory. Second, for Tassadar's diversion to succeed he'd have to have already drawn off a large number of broods from other hives. If Kerrigan is using other Cerebrates' broods to attack him, the thing with Zasz makes more sense.

The problem was that I had already established the Cerebrate as both conservative with his forces and ruthlessly competent. So I figured I'd show just what Kerrigan's reckless blood knight tendencies result in.

Now one last thing, Queen of Blades portrays the Overmind as an easily manipulated buffoon and the Cerebrates as complete jokes. This is really stupid to put it lightly. The Overmind is an eldritch abomination of unfathomable power, and the Cerebrates are lesser eldritch abominations who have the capacity to ascend to become Overminds themselves.

So yeah, Zasz put Kerrigan in her place. Sue me.


	7. The Assassin

**Chapter Seven: The Assassin**

 _The worst thing about the zerg was their numbers. They could just keep on throwing zerg at an enemy, losing millions and just sort of walk it off. Even gigantic casualties could be replaced in a matter of weeks._

 _The best thing about the zerg was how they didn't make use of their numbers. If the swarm had really been making the best use of its forces for the whole war, then they would have walked over terran civilization in a matter of weeks. But the zerg were slipshod in how they used their forces._

 _That was what made the Cerebrate so scary. It fought smart._

 _-Liberty's report, volume II_

* * *

The Cerebrate did not strike at once. Tassadar's position was strong, and the Cerebrate did not want to risk a reckless attack like Kerrigan had. Instead, he drew back the ground forces and over the course of a few days assembled a mighty host of mutalisks and guardians.

Several minor raids occurred during this time. Probing attacks on the outlying hive clusters which he repulsed with his mutalisks. One of them had the protoss air-dropping their forces down onto a newly established hive cluster. Many of the drones were killed and the hive cluster damaged before he drove them off with his flyers.

It was strange, for the battle line had fallen oddly silent. With the momentum of their assault spent, the protoss seemed content to hold their ground and beat back assaults by the various cerebrates. And there were many assaults, for Kerrigan had roused many of the lesser cerebrates into a frenzy of assault, who hoped to earn their names by valor.

The Cerebrate did not attack, however, he bided his time. While he worked Kerrigan watched impatiently.

'Well, Cerebrate?' she asked 'What is this vaunted strategy of yours?'

'I am getting to that, Kerry.' said the Cerebrate 'Your assault failed because Tassadar's standing forces were formidable enough to weather your assault, while he drew back his armies to attack you from behind.

I will thus eliminate one of his outlying fortifications before I attack his main stronghold.' He looked through his overlords to look over the formation of the protoss. 'He has a nearly impenetrable ground defense. His dragoons will quickly halt any rush, and his reavers will end any war of attrition. A frontal assault would be futile, yet they do not seem to have any flyers there.'

Summoning to him the mutalisks and guardians he flew them over the lake of lava, then turned them mid flight to assault the flanks of the dragoons. The guardians fired first, unleashing a barrage of acid which burned several of the creatures to death in moments. More followed soon enough and then the mutalisks were on them.

The assault was feral and caught the dragoons piecemeal. As they returned fire many of them were already killed. Several mutalisks were shot from the sky by a dragoons cannon. Two dragoons were blasted by the acid of guardians, while another two were torn to pieces by the mutalisks. Yet more were on their way to reinforce their numbers, and the Cerebrate withdrew his mutalisks from range. The dragoons followed, falling out of formation in the process and his mutalisks and guardians returned to destroy them. After a few more barrages, the formation was destroyed and those dragoons that remained withdrew.

The Cerebrate paid them no heed, instead heading for the protoss base. It was strange, and gold colored with many crystals. It was connected by many pylons and it was practically empty. The Cerebrate began to destroy it, firing acid down into it to melt and burn the golden structures.

'You should have pursued them!' said Kerrigan 'You could have wiped them out!'

'In due time.' said the Cerebrate 'Zasz told me that the protoss draw more forces to them through warp gates. It would be best if these warp gates were destroyed.'

Little by little the base was reduced. No one came to oppose them, and nothing rushed them. It was all too easy. It was as if Tassadar was not even trying to save his structures. 'This makes no sense,' he said 'why would Tassadar give up one of his bases so easily?'

'It's not the base,' said Kerrigan 'it's the warriors who man it. Tassadar probably values his soldiers more than he does his structures.'

'Right, right,' said the Cerebrate 'protoss are strange creatures.'

While the protoss base was put to the sword the Cerebrate drew forth still more mutalisks and guardians and brought them forth to meet up with the forces destroying the base. As he did, the Cerebrate accessed the memories he had experienced from the protoss. He realized that the protoss lived many hundreds of years, that they were not considered even teenaged until they were a century old. That they could easily summon in buildings using their probes.

Of course. The protoss population grew slowly while the zerg grew quickly. Thus the zerg did not value their forces and valued more the means of production. While the protoss valued their forces and cared little for the means of production. Even their dragoons were devices used to resurrect fallen protoss warriors and have them serve once more, so as to make the most use of their soldiers.

A cunning way to continue a long term war. 'So Cerebrate,' said Kerrigan 'I take it you will now launch an assault against his other outlying base?'

'No.' said the Cerebrate 'The defenses are broken. And I don't want Tassadar to withdraw. Go now my broods, lay waste to the protoss colony and let none survive!'

The guardians and mutalisks rushed to the north. Once again they were met by the flyers of the protoss, but this time there were fewer proton cannons to contend with. The dragoons and ground defenses were burned away by barrage after barrage of acid, while the mutalisks dodged and weaved in battle with the protoss flyers.

A scout shot down three mutalisks with its missiles, before being torn apart by a flock of them. Two guardians shelled several photon cannons to dust before one of them was killed by dragoons. Formations of zealots were withdrawn by Tassadar to a safe distance, while the combat raged on.

Heavy casualties were taking place on both sides, but the protoss defenses were being ground down. The Cerebrate sent more mutalisks to continue the assault. No dragoons came to help from the flank, but more came to halt them. Little by little the protoss forces were breaking inward. Finally, as if by some command, what forces remained withdrew from the battlefield, and the Cerebrate began systematically decimating what remained of their defense grid.

Soon enough the protoss were withdrawing. They had taken many casualties but sustained many in return. It had been an indecisive battle, but the swarm could recover casualties more easily. The Cerebrate needed only continue the stalemate and victory would be his sooner or later.

'See Kerry.' he said 'That is how you reduce a fortification. You attack where they are- Kerry?'

Kerrigan was not there. She was flying across the lava lake alongside a contingent of hunter killers and landing amidst the burnt out ruins of the protoss forces. 'Where are you, Tassadar?!' she roared 'Do you always let your underlings do your fighting for you?'

'Wow, just take all the credit for yourself, why don't you?' asked the Cerebrate.

Then they received a vision. A vision of a circular island at the center of the lake of lava. A presence surrounded them, amused and satisfied. 'This shall be our battlefield, O Queen.' said Tassadar 'Face me here, and I shall defeat you myself.'

Kerrigan wasted no time in loading her army of hunter killers onto the overlords and bringing them toward the island. Landing her forces she swarmed forward. Nothing happened. No one appeared to challenge her.

'Well you don't really think he's going to appear when you have a whole army with you, do you?' asked the Cerebrate 'He was challenging you to single combat.'

With a sigh of frustration, Kerrigan motioned to the zerg, who were loaded onto the overlords and departed. No sooner had they done so, and Tassadar appeared. He was writhed in a hateful light but seemed also to cast a long shadow. He radiated an aura of understanding and condescending which the Cerebrate hated at once.

Raising one hand he motioned to Kerrigan, who rushed at Tassadar. Yet even as she closed he faded away. Kerrigan looked around for him, and then he reappeared ten feet behind her, arms crossed, looking on with a calculating expression.

'Come,' Tassadar said 'over here.'

Kerrigan raised a hand and from it shot forth a swarm of lightning bolts which consumed the Templar. The ground shook beneath the after effects of the power unleashed and a massive wave of rock and dirt was kicked up by the resulting explosions. Drawing back her hand, Kerrigan smiled.

And then had a four fingered hand set to her shoulder. She screamed and was sent tumbling head over heels and came to a halt near the edge. Rising up, Tassadar suddenly surged forward, a blade in hand. Kerrigan was forced to parry a series of strike, each one of which nearly sent her over the edge.

She lashed out wildly and Tassadar retreated with ease.

Silence overtook them as the Cerebrate reflected that Tassadar was winning. 'You want me to call in the hunter killers?'

'Stay out of this!' snarled Kerrigan 'You… you will die by my hand!'

Tassadar regarded her, eyes holding some mixture of contempt and pity. It emanating out from him and the Cerebrate knew Kerrigan could sense it as well. It was not how one regarded a hated enemy or a legitimate threat.

'Say something!' roared Kerrigan.

Tassadar looked up, not looking at them exactly. Then he returned his focus to them. 'You have severely overestimated your abilities, Queen of the Zerg.'

'I have yet to even begin with you!' roared Kerrigan.

'I am of the firstborn.' said Tassadar 'The chosen creations of the Xel'naga. Compared to the lowliest of my kind the greatest terran psychic is but a child playing with fire. Only the will of the Overmind and his unholy mutations have allowed you to fight as well as you have.

For now, you are the Overmind's favorite. He has had many favorites in the past. Every one of them was cast aside when he found a greater strain. The Overmind will tire of you before the embers of your victory here are even cool.'

'Be quiet!' roared Kerrigan, rushing at him.

She passed him by, but the protoss did not visibly react. He simply flickered and turned around. Kerrigan faced him, shaking with rage, yet also confused. '…An illusion,' she said 'are you afraid to face me, Templar?!'

Amusement flickered across Tassadar's face as he began to fade gradually. 'So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy.'

Then he was gone, disappearing as though he had never been. Tassadar had never been here. All that had been here was a psionic creation which he had poured his will into. The Cerebrate was impressed, he had to figure out how Tassadar had done that.

Kerrigan was dead silent and utterly still. Her eyes were wide and she was striving to speak. Any moment now her fury would be unleashed in full. 'I don't know what you are so upset about,' said the Cerebrate 'you tried to cheat first. I mean you did bring all those hunter killers-'

Kerrigan roared and the aftershock and the roar shook the earth, sending dust flowing away from her in the wind. Psionic storms ravaged the surrounding landscape. Great pillars of lava arose from the lake, soaking the ground. The ground cracked, and pieces began to fall off the island into the sea of magma.

All around her the swarm cowered as Kerrigan roared, slamming the ground, and sending out psionic storms to express her absolute fury. She had been defeated. Oh, the zerg had won this battle, but it was the Cerebrates victory, not hers. On and on her tantrum raged, and it might have been pathetic if it weren't so lethal.

Finally, she halted, breathing for air.

'You done?' asked the Cerebrate.

'…We're leaving, Cerebrate.' said Kerrigan. 'We'll deal with the protoss later.'

By which she meant _he_ would deal with the protoss and Kerrigan would act as if it was all her work. She hadn't learned anything by her actions here. She was just as entitled and spoiled as she had ever been. The Cerebrate was beginning to get really sick of her attitude.

* * *

After the bulk of the remaining broods was drawn off, a sudden onslaught of Templar assaulted the hive cluster where Zasz resided. Resistance was too weak to stop them. The sunken colonies were blasted, the hatcheries were laid to waste. Zasz called for reinforcements from his surrounding broods, but the protoss beat them off. Then they approached him.

They held the same strangeness which the Templar had held.

Fear had grown within his consciousness as the broods were all mustered to war, and yet the Overmind in His glory must have foreseen this. He could have reined Kerrigan in, denied her the right to assault. What was to happen must have been part of His plan. Zasz had fought against it, sought to turn it aside, yet now he was resigned. His efforts had failed, as they should have.

The protoss leader emerged and he was not like the others. He was cloaked in darkness, the same darkness which the cerebrates were formed from. In his eyes was malice and hatred for all that Zasz was, all that the Overmind was. In that moment Zasz perceived that this protoss possessed the power to do what was meant to be impossible. To slay a Cerebrate.

What purpose could his death serve for the Overmind? That was what he wondered. Then realization dawned.

The terrans were impulsive and rash creatures which led to many mistakes. Kerrigan for all her bluster had made many of them. Yet when motivated that same impulsiveness could lead to great victories. They would launch great wars not out of a desire to gain, but to destroy those who had destroyed their own minions in turn.

The zerg were not like that. They were legion, and their numbers endless. The loss of a few billion of their kind was a matter of frustration, but not true outrage. The Cerebrates were immortal, and so their deaths were not met with grief. Why would they be, when death was but a momentary inconvenience?

Then Zasz realized that immortality had robbed the zerg of a critical power.

The pain of loss.

In that moment he understood why the Overmind had allowed this.

A blade of green light struck Zasz, and he recoiled by the agony. Pain surged through his body, and he convulsed. Blood seeped from his form, his lifeblood, and he knew he would not return. His spirit was fading, and his mind turned to the young Cerebrate who had minded the chrysalis, and how he had enjoyed their conversations…

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

So I extended the fight between Tassadar and Kerrigan. To be honest, I only did it because this chapter was looking to be far too short, to begin with, and I felt I needed to pad it out a bit.

Now some of you have probably figured this out by now, but I have a very low opinion of Kerrigan's status as a leader. I think she's a terrible leader, who only got as far as she did because of the Cerebrate and Duran. The fact that everyone acts like she is this super epic tactician is a source of incredible frustration for me. More on that later.


	8. The Culling

**Chapter Eight: The Culling**

 _The zerg civil war was the greatest victory we'd had up until that point. The zerg were tearing each other apart, while we were united with the protoss in our desire to wipe them out. We had a unique opportunity to utterly devastate the swarm while it was too preoccupied with fighting itself to do anything._

 _It worked out pretty well at first. Unfortunately, like everything else, it came with a cost._

 _-Liberty's report, volume II_

* * *

Something was terribly wrong as the Cerebrate returned to the primary hive clusters with Kerrigan. That central sense of connectedness which he had possessed from his earliest memory was now denied him. The will of the Overmind was silent, and he felt adrift in the space. The swarms around him seemed suddenly foreign, as if some kinship which had existed between all of them had been broken. The warrior strains shifted uneasily.

He turned his mind to what had happened before, seeking an explanation. The Overmind had been totally silent. He had been hoping for praise, acknowledgement of his victory, even disappointment in Kerrigan. Yet none was forthcoming, and it wasn't because the Overmind had nothing to say. It was because…

It was like the Overmind wasn't there.

This was very disturbing, and the Cerebrate reached out for the one he knew best for answers. 'Zasz,' he said, meaning to ask the older cerebrate for news. Yet there was no answer, and the connection was not there. 'Zasz! Are you there?!'

Zasz was not there. Not just not present as he had often been when they were dealing with other duties. He could not feel his presence in the swarm, any more than he could feel the Overmind. He was alone, not that Kerrigan cared.

'Insufferable protoss coward!' roared Kerrigan as she stormed into the infested command center she had taken up residence in. 'Tassadar cannot evade my wrath forever! I shall find him and-'

 **'** **Kerrigan, Zasz is dead!'** said Daggoth.

Oh was that all, the Cerebrate had thought it was something serious. The terrans must have staged another offensive, they really had to do something about them. He felt a sense of relief was over him.

'Oh?' said Kerrigan 'It is a pity that Cerebrates cannot truly be killed. I expect the Overmind will reincarnate him shortly.'

She was out of line again. The Cerebrate was about to rebuke her when Daggoth spoke. **'No, he will not!'** A chill went through him and the swarm. What did he mean by that? **'The protoss have devised some new attack. An attack powerful enough to nullify our reincarnation and give pause to the Overmind itself!'**

Zasz was dead. And he would not return. The Cerebrate could not conceive of it, it was beyond possibility. This should not be! Cerebrates were meant to live forever, not be snuffed out like the lives of terrans and protoss. He felt horror and grief threatening to overtake him.

Kerrigan was pleased with herself. She was genuinely glad she had acted as she had. 'So, Tassadar's plan was merely a diversion. I should not have underestimated him so.'

The Cerebrate felt rising fury welling to the surface, but Daggoth cut him off. **'Without its master, Zasz's brood has run amok and even now threatens the hive cluster. Cerebrate, you must eradicate the rampaging brood and stem any further damage it might cause.'**

He'd deal with Kerrigan later. He had to follow Daggoth's directives now, and he did so, flowing through the hive clusters and mustering his broods to himself. Even now he saw the Garm Brood rampaging across the hives, fighting with his fellow Cerebrates. How had he not sensed this? The Overmind itself was gone.

Zasz was dead. Somehow that mattered more. The Cerebrate remembered his idea of two hydralisks together. He'd come up with a plan, and idea. He'd wanted to have them burrow under the ground and attack from there. He'd been looking forward to telling Zasz about it.

Now he would never be able to tell him.

Zasz was dead.

Hive clusters were being assaulted before his eyes. Several had been destroyed already, for the Garm Brood had gone out of control and become feral. Across the sector worlds which once belonged to the swarm had been cut off from the Overmind, in a deeper wound worse even than the one suffered by the Cerebrate. They were no longer part of the swarm, in any way.

This was no practice skirmish to increase one's skills, it was life or death. Without the Overmind's presence the Cerebrate felt vulnerable and weak, his connection to his broods was nothing like it had once been, now he was cut loose. Spiritually adrift for the first time in his existence.

Yet he controlled them and his forces swarmed over the first of the hives, one that had only recently been established. He found guarding it only a few hundred zerglings and his hydralisks quickly slaughtered them as they attacked. Yet hydralisks came from the east and he was forced to repel them. A lengthy engagement ensued. Fortunately the Garm Brood was just rampaging mindlessly, unable to come up with strategies.

He had to destroy Zasz's hives. The sensation of purging fellow zerg, really purging them beset Cerebrate. As he watched his hydralisks and the Garm brood tear each other apart he kept reaching out, trying to find some remnant of Zasz. Yet he found nothing. His entire brood had gone mad and could not be saved. Eventually the horrific deed was done, the hatchery laid to waste and the other structures obliterated and the Cerebrate set about creating a new hive cluster.

Zasz was dead. How? How could it have happened? Could he have stopped it?

Many questions range through his head as he drew up a great host of hydralisks and mutalisks and sent it west towards a hive which his overlords had found. As they scaled the cliffs resistance was terrible, for sunken colonies tore through his hydralisks and the hydralisks of the Garm Brood were just as deadly. Back and forth the two sides fought, with more hydralisks arriving for both sides. The Cerebrate sent his mutalisks around the enemy defenses to attack from the rear and the distraction allowed his forces to break through the defenses.

Yet hundreds were dead on both sides and still hundreds more were dying.

Then came zerglings in great numbers, attacking the hive he had established. The hydralisks he had left behind fired into their ranks, yet these zerglings closed quickly and attacked with untold speed. It was all the Cerebrate could do to fend them off while continuing his assault.

Yet even as the hive cluster was destroyed more hydralisks came to attacking his remaining creatures. Spines flew between them, tearing through both sides with equal viciousness. After a brutal pitched battle that lasted a few minutes, both sides were utterly destroyed. Somehow the Cerebrate was certain that the corpse brood would send drones to reestablish the hives.

He could not let that happen and began summoning mutalisks to his cause instead as well as the stronger of his hydralisks. He sent them along with several of his drones to establish a new hive cluster where Zasz's hive had once been. It would take weeks to reestablish even a fraction of what had been destroyed, and the battle was only getting started. He began to scour the surrounding areas for Zasz's other hives and any possible weak spots.

Across Char, across the universe, the swarm was tearing itself apart. Its enemies destroyed outlying hive clusters and frustrated attempts to rebuild in areas which the swarm had driven from. The Cerebrate next laid waste to a hive to the east of where he had begun its purge.

He destroyed the defenders with a combination of mutalisks and hydralisks, routing the reinforcements and obliterated the hive. He did not have the Overmind helping them. Yet in His name the Cerebrate pressed on, fighting on all sides. Border worlds of the swarm fell to Dominion assaults during this chaos. Protoss colonies under siege rallied and destroyed hive clusters. The blood of zerg spilled out over the lands of a thousand worlds like oceans, and the Cerebrate felt more grief with every zerg that died. Never before had he mourned to loss of individual strains, yet now he did. For they had voices of their own, albeit small ones, that should have been directed to the glory of the Overmind, not in His diminishment.

His first assault on the northmost Garm Brood hive cluster failed. His hydralisk assault force was destroy to the last creature. Yet he gathered yet another and sent it forth to strike from two directions in greater numbers. The screams of his swarms and those that had become their enemies was more horrible than anything he'd ever experienced. Yet soon the defenses were broken, and he began the process of obliterating the largest of the hives.

So much was being lost, and for what?

A sense of sudden urgency possessed him, for he could feel Daggoth and other cerebrates fighting with Raynor and Duke and Tassadar. If the protoss destroyed another Cerebrate while he was fighting here, then they fight create enough chaos to do it again. One by one the cerebrates of the Overmind could be picked off, until the whole of the swarm was tearing itself apart. He had to win here, and he had to do it quickly. The Cerebrate forced himself to go on though, he had to go on. For Zasz, for the Overmind.

A grim resolve began to grow in his heart as he tore through his own kind, and he pressed on while putting aside his regret, mercy, and pity. He destroyed everything, obliterating all that he found with his broods. His overlords told him that the Garm Brood had bastions on cliffs which could not be reached by ground. He sent vast tides of mutalisks to overwhelm the defenses. The spore colonies shot down many mutalisks, yet more soon came to continue the assault. After a few minutes the spore colonies were reduced to mush.

Hydralisks shot down more mutalisks but the result was not in question. The defense was beaten down. The mutalisks swooped in for the kill.

'I have done as you asked, Daggoth.' said the Cerebrate, feeling immeasurable grief. 'The Garm Brood is destroyed.'

Daggoth did not respond, however, he was satisfied. None of it mattered, however. The Garm Brood was destroyed.

Every last creature which had once been part of it on Char was decimated. A few remnants survived, perhaps, in distant colonies. There they wandered aimless, devoid of the consciousness. No more part of the swarm than any animal. Yet it was no more the same than the corpse of a terran was the terran itself. At the end of the bitter combat, nothing was solved. The protoss and the terrans pressed in on them still, for reinforcements had arrived from the hated Dominion to bolster their failing defenses. The swarm was diminished, and it's enemies grew stronger.

When he had first come here there had been hundreds of hives on the planet of Char. How many fewer were there now? Through the eyes of an overlord the Cerebrate looked down upon his world. There he saw many great holes in the creep. And they were still growing larger. Because of Jim Raynor. Because of Tassadar. Because of Kerrigan. The thing he had been put in place to serve was most responsible for this. That was what hurt the most.

No. The Cerebrate had not been created to serve Kerrigan, even if she deluded herself that that was the case. The zerg did not serve any save the Overmind. Competition led to evolution, and the Cerebrate and Kerrigan were two separate experiments. He was a zerg formed from terrans, she a terran changed into a zerg. One would in time prove the stronger, and the Overmind would use that while the other was purged.

Zasz was dead. And it was Kerrigan's fault.

If she'd had even an ounce of regret, he might have forgiven her. Yet she didn't. She was proud and arrogant, she thought the entire swarm did and should revolve around her. Her personal whims dictated her strategy, and because of her so doing many hives were now in ruins. Because of her Zasz was dead.

And the Cerebrate wanted revenge. For the first time he felt true hatred. He would use that feeling, the pain of loss, the impotent fury of knowing that a being he had come to like, to love as a brother, who should have lived forever now lay dead with his broods in ruins. The Cerebrate would wield it like a sword to achieve his vengeance over all who were responsible. He would begin with the protoss.

* * *

Daggoth was angry.

It was a sensation he had never felt before now, and he might not have recognized it if he had not been observing the youngest Cerebrate. He had known Zasz for a long time, and though he had not precisely _liked_ him, his likes and dislikes were irrelevant, he had known him. They had worked well together.

Now he was gone. The swarm was horribly damaged and the protoss were laughing to themselves. It made Daggoth become angrier the more he thought about it, but he was controlled. He'd felt frustration before and this was like it.

He could have attacked the protoss on the ground.

Yet he wasn't satisfied with merely a victory. He would ensure that not one protoss left Char alive. Not one.

Even now he saw the protoss' golden ships flying through space. With most of the fighting assisting in the assault on the outlying hives, their air to air defense was weak. They saw his forces coming at them and tried to escape. A vast tied of scourges came forward, blasting their escort fighters to pieces in suicide assaults.

Many of the scourges were blasted by their weaponry, but many more got through. On and on came the tide and one by one the golden vessels exploded into supernovas of blue lightning. One by one the protoss ships were sent spiraling down towards Char to meet a grisly end.

The protoss were stranded now.

There would be no escape.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Well, the Culling is done. It is a real challenge trying to make these chapters interesting since you are basically playing as a hive mind. Making human interest in the events of the story is very difficult. The detachment the Cerebrate has for casualties is one of the reasons this has up until this point been almost a humor fic.

Also, this chapter was harder to make longer because Kerrigan has nothing to do with it. It is just a straight up fight between one horde of alien xenomorphs, and another. The best I could do was add Daggoth into the mix.


	9. An Eye for an Eye

**Chapter Nine: An Eye for an Eye**

 _We missed our opportunity. There is no other way to say it._

 _We had Alpha Squadron, Raynor's Raiders, and the protoss in the field and we were fighting an enemy which was divided against itself. We should have devastated the zerg in that time. But for whatever reason, it didn't happen._

 _Our best and brightest, the Executor Tassadar, the Dark Prelate Zeratul, all of their efforts combined couldn't do much more than scratch the surface on the zerg defenses. What was worse was that we were aware that we were on a time table, which meant we were in a hurry to attack._

 _I've heard horror stories of entire divisions launching hopeless assaults, only to be wiped out. Vast siege tank bombardments were unleashed to no avail. Huge aerial dogfights occurred beneath fields of protoss and zerg dueling. Whenever we took ground, the zerg almost always took it back._

 _Hundreds of protoss and tens of thousands of terrans were killed in the fighting. The zerg probably lost a lot more than that. But I doubt it mattered to them as much as it did to us._

 _-Liberty's report, volume 2_

* * *

The trauma of the Garm broods destruction had not waned. Though Daggoth had stopped the terrans and protoss from causing much damage to the hive clusters, the Garm Brood had caused massive destruction throughout the whole of the swarms dominions. Not that Kerrigan cared, all that mattered to her was tracking down Tassadar. Not to avenge Zasz, but to appease her own pride.

And what had she to be proud of? She had arisen to much fanfare among the Swarm and allowed Raynor to escape even as the Cerebrate had his life and the lives of his crew in his grasp. She convinced the Overmind to send the assembled hosts of the swarm to attack the protoss Tassadar for nothing, even though it left Zasz defenseless. The Cerebrate had in his darkest moments begun to suspect that she envied the position of the Overmind itself.

Kerrigan was the swarms enemy.

Worse still, she was all but useless to them. Because of her, the hive clusters were decimated and Char reduced to a shadow of its former glory. Because of her Zasz was dead. And what true value did she provide? An above average footsoldier.

The Cerebrate had slowly begun to gather his broods while she remained ignorant. He did not need her to destroy the protoss, he would not fall into the trap he did before. Ignorant of his designs she remained alone as he surrounded her hive clusters with his own. Daggoth saw what he was doing and said nothing.

Yes, he would do it! He would slay the foul abomination and put an end to this failed experiment!

And then the Overmind was among them again. The joy of feeling his presence was enough to shake the Cerebrate from his murderous thoughts. He prostrated his will before the Overmind, who loomed over them all in his full glory.

 ** _'_** ** _Behold my long silence is now broken, and I am made whole once more. The cunning protoss have dared to strike down that which was made immortal. For the protoss who murdered Zasz are unlike anything we have faced before. These dark templar radiate energies that are much like my own, and it is by these energies that they have caused me harm._**

 ** _Yet shall their overweening pride be their downfall. For when the assassin Zeratul murdered Zasz, his mind touched with mine, and all his secrets were made known to me. I have taken from his mind the secret location of Auir, the protoss homeworld._**

 ** _At long last, my children, our searching is done. Soon we shall assault Aiur directly.'_**

The Cerebrate felt now ashamed that he had ever doubted the Overmind. His was not to question his glory, merely obey his infallible will. Yes, if Kerrigan served a purpose in his grand design, then that was all he need know. By the very act of taking injury the Overmind had assured their ultimate triumph.

Zasz had died for the greater evolution of the swarm. Kerrigan had had just the wit to play the Overmind's part and that was all she would need. She was still responsible, of course, her mistakes were her own, and the Cerebrate would pay her back in due time. Even now the Cerebrate perceived that the Overmind had found more than Auir, but also the location of the settlement from which the dark templar were operating.

Daggoth spoke: **'For now we must ensure that the dark templar can cause no more harm. Cerebrate, you shall set a trap for our foes. Kerrigan will lead them to you.'**

Daggoth then showed him an image of two protoss settlements which had not been found before now. To assault them would surely draw the attention of the main protoss force. There they could be defeated in a decisive battle. Yet to do so they would first need to draw their attention.

'I understand.' said the Cerebrate.

He went then to Kerrigan who was busy constructing new hive clusters that were loyal only to her. Other Cerebrates would gladly trade one hive for another, or allow another creature to wield their power. Yet Kerrigan refused to part with even one of her creatures, and at the same time demanded the full strength of the swarm to aid her.

She was what the terrans called a spoiled child. Nothing more.

'Kerry,' he said 'we have orders to engage the protoss. Daggoth has found their primary settlements. If we launch an assault against them, and you challenge the protoss it will surely draw them out to face you.'

Kerrigan looked up. 'Does Daggoth presume to give me orders?'

'Yes.' said the Cerebrate.

There was silence as they looked at each other, just looked. The Cerebrate wondered what he had ever seen in her in the first place. At last Kerrigan looked away. 'Very well, we will do as you Daggoth suggested. I had intended to destroy the protoss myself anyway.

Yet we will do so in our own way. Those settlements have only three possible entrances. Send forth your swarms to establish a force in the passes. In this way none of the protoss may escape.

Once we have sealed them off, you will lay waste to their settlement.'

'What is this? A plan? An actual strategy beyond go here kill this? You are improving Kerry.' scoffed the Cerebrate. 'You do realize that defending all three entrances will be difficult to say the least.'

'I'm confident in your abilities.' said Kerrigan.

'Of course, you are.' said the Cerebrate.

The Cerebrate loaded his forces onto overlords and sent them forth as quietly and quickly as could be managed. At every moment he was afraid the protoss would catch on, but fortunately they had grown overconfident with their recent victories. He could feel their joy, and he realized that within their golden settlements they were celebrating.

These protoss had refused to evacuate. They had chosen to stand their ground and hold out where others had fled. There were three settlements, surrounding a lake of lava. One was on the eastern side and its defenses were sloppy to say the least. Only a few photon cannons guarded the defense, and the protoss there were resting. On the western side of the lake was a better guarded fortress and much larger. To the north was a village of sorts, without a nexus. It was still reliant on the other colonies, not self-sufficient.

He could sense their ease, their unguardedness. They had not yet received Tassadar's word that they had been grounded. They had scoffed at those who choose to evacuate and now they thought their decision to stay vindicated. Some even whispered that the end of the war was in sight. It was, but not in the fashion they imagined.

Day after day was spent arraying his forces so that he had great numbers of hydralisks hidden in the passes that led out. It would not stop an air evacuation, but it would be sufficient to halt a sudden exodus. Then he circled great flights of mutalisks in from the south and launched his assault.

The hammer fell first on the eastern village hard. The mutalisks surged over the cliffs, overrunning the meager photon cannons set to defend that area and then assailing the nexus directly. Dragoons scrambled to stop them, but the blades of his mutalisks tore through them even as they further weakened the nexus.

He could feel their panic! They had not been expecting an attack now, with the swarms gravely weakened. A time of celebration became a scene of horror as the swarms tore through protoss workers and warriors alike. He could feel their anguish, their suffering.

And yet he could not delight in it.

Some fire which had raged in him for many years was now gone. As he watched his mutalisks eradicate the defenders he realized that just as Zasz had been precious to him, a friend, a brother, so too did these protoss have loved ones. They were watching those loves ones be consumed before their eyes.

And it was not them alone. Across the many protoss settlements the Cerebrate could sense the swarm unleashing its fully fury. Daggoth had called broods from other zerg colonies to fill out the ranks and now the protoss were fighting a battle far sooner than they had expected! They were killing people!

The meaningless creatures who the Cerebrate had destroyed had never been people to him before. Just enemies to be destroyed, he had regarded them as they regarded him. Yet now with Zasz's memory on his mind he realized why they were fighting. Something clicked within his mind. Nationalism, pride, hope, love, passion, these things which before had been utterly meaningless to him now suddenly seemed to hold some value he had never understood.

And he was destroying it.

These thoughts and more flashed through his mind in mere moments as the last of the dragoons were destroyed. The Cerebrate drew back his mutalisks and sent them to destroy the nexus. Little by little, it succumbed to acid and blade and then exploded into a flurry of blue light.

The Cerebrate drew them back, leaving the survivors and giving them the chance to flee through their warp gate. He couldn't bring himself to do what he had.

Sensing around him, however, he sensed that the death of Zasz had had the opposite effect on his brothers and sisters. Consumed with hatred they attacked with reckless fury and utter disregard for their own casualties. Their only concern was to kill as many protoss as possible in vengeance for the death of Zasz.

All except Kerrigan. She cared nothing for the swarm or Zasz, only her own glory. He saw in a vision her walking through carnage wrought upon a protoss settlement, killing warriors. A force of dragoons fired at her, and she summoned a shield to bar their assault. Then with a motion, she summoned to her a great storm of psionic energy which tore through the dragoons.

'Once again, I grow tired of slaughtering your servants.' said Kerrigan, voice filled with hateful pride. 'Have the mighty Templar lost their infallible courage?'

'Well spoken, Concubine of the Zerg.' said a voice, Zeratul guessed the Cerebrate. 'But though we strike at you from the shadows, do not think we lack the courage to stand in the light. You would do well to abandon this attack.'

'You seem overconfident of your abilities, dark one.' boasted Kerrigan 'I am no helpless cerebrate to be assailed under cover of darkness! I am the Queen of Blades, and my stare alone would reduce you to ashes. You and your ilk cease to amuse me. Prepare yourself for oblivions embrace.'

And then a blade came from behind and nearly cut her head off. Kerrigan ducked back and summoned a psi blade to meet a green one. Zeratul was there and they were fighting, dodging and weaving with ruthless ease, neither able to gain an advantage over the other.

The Cerebrate turned his attention to other parts of the battle. He didn't really care who won so long as one of them died. He saw a vast horde of zerg, hydralisks, ultralisks, zerglings and all others rushing at an array of protoss defenses. Reaver scarabs were shot and killed many of them in a barrage that claimed thousands. Those that got through were met by a line of zealots who tore through them easily.

Still more zerg arrived from elsewhere and these too were eradicated by the zealots. Yet more and more came and soon the line began to falter. Then came the storms like those Kerrigan used, yet directed against the zerg. The protoss had unleashed their own power and it was burning many zerg to ashes.

The Cerebrate drew his attention to the passes. The dark ones were making a move to break out. He unleashed his hydralisks and the protoss were taken offguard, destroyed in volleys of spines. The Cerebrate watched, unable to take any delight from what was happening.

Yes, the protoss had killed his brother. Yet how many brothers had the swarm killed? And fathers mothers, and sons and daughters and nephews and nieces. They had carved a swath across the universe and for what? What was the grand mission which Zasz had spoken of? Which Kerrigan had been judged worthy of knowing, but not him?

 **'** **Reposition your overlords, Cerebrate.'** said Daggoth **'They've fallen out of place.'**

Retribution. That was what this was about. Vengeance for Zasz, who the protoss killed because of how many of their own kind were slain by the zerg. It all seemed so meaningless, all of a sudden. The Cerebrate repositioned his overlord, but he could hardly bear to continue.

 **'** **Cerebrate, your overlords are in place.'** said Daggoth, voice holding a note of threat and anger. **'Be certain that they remain there!'**

The Cerebrate supposed he ought to finish all this sooner rather than later. He summoned to him the full might of his mutalisks and sent them along the cliffs in a daze. Finding a collection of photon cannons he annihilated them, though protoss flyers arrived to duel with his mutalisks for a time before he destroyed those too.

At last the way was clear. The protoss tried the other passes and were repulsed each time. They were trapped and it was the Cerebrate's task to execute them. Thus he unleashed his mutalisks on them over the cliffs. He focused all his assault on the nexus, not bothering to conserve casualties. The initial wave was burned to pieces, and he sent another to finish the job.

It seemed the nexus was some kind of communications center for the protoss or something because after he destroyed it, the protoss seemed to panick. They lost cohesion. He had a brief vision of a number of dark templar faded away, but he didn't care enough to pursue them.

'Now, protoss, you will know my wrath!' cried Kerrigan in a voice which reached across Char. 'Now you will know the fury of the Queen of Blades!'

The battles with the protoss continued. Tassadar and Zeratul had survived the swarms vicious attacks, but almost two thirds of their forces were destroyed. Many protosss colonies were laid to waste, and what remained was shattered and leaderless, and many would likely be overwhelmed before any kind of resistance could be mounted.

The Cerebrate took no satisfaction from what had happened. And Daggoth sensed the fact.

 **'** **Cerebrate,'** said Daggoth **'you allowed many protoss to live in your assault. Why?'**

'They are like us.' said the Cerebrate 'Just as Zasz was important to me, many of the protoss are important to someone else. It is like slaying Zasz a thousand times over.'

 **'** **This… empathy must be put from your mind.'** said Daggoth **'The protoss are our enemy. The swarm must not be held back by such emotions, lest our grand mission fail.'**

'What is our mission?' asked the Cerebrate 'What does the Overmind seek?'

 **'** **If you are judged worthy of that knowledge the Overmind will tell you in time.'** said Daggoth.

'Then why was Kerrigan told?' asked the Cerebrate.

 **'** **Kerrigan is… unique.'** said Daggoth **'The Overmind raises each of its new creations in a different fashion, seeking to create the greatest strategists. I believe he wished to see what might happen if he revealed to a creature its full importance from the very beginning.'**

'And what is my purpose?' asked the Cerebrate.

 **'** **I cannot tell you that.'** said Daggoth **'Only the Overmind may.'**

Then Kerrigan entered and the Cerebrate regarded her as she reached out to contact the Overmind directly. Most cerebrates had to go through Daggoth, and yet she was allowed a direct meeting at once. 'Great Overmind, our broods are even now mustering to assault the hated protoss on Auir, are they not?'

 ** _'_** ** _Indeed my child. Our hour of victory is soon to be at hand.'_** said the Overmind, seeming very pleased with himself. **_'And you shall be first in the assault. The protoss will soon know to fear you more than any other of my creations.'_**

'I understand your will, Great Overmind.' said Kerrigan 'However it is my desire to remain here and hunt the remaining protoss.'

What?!

'She has got to be kidding.' said the Cerebrate to Daggoth, feeling his inner terran taking control for a moment.

The Overmind did not seem angry. Yet neither did he seem quite so pleased as he had been before. _**'Is your mind set in this?**_ '

'The protoss here are still a threat.' said Kerrigan 'It would not due to leave Char unguarded.' Her posture then changed, and she genuinely looked sad. 'And also… it wouldn't be right to just let them get away after what they did to my brother Zasz.'

That was a lie. She was trying to deceive the Overmind itself to his face! Daggoth swelled with fury, and the Cerebrate sensed hatred. Yet the Overmind reached out with His will and calmed Daggoth.

 _ **'You may do as you desire.'** _said the Overmind.

That was it. It was the last straw. That part of the Cerebrate which was petty, vindictive, angry and altogether unzerg manifested within him. 'Go to hell.' said the Cerebrate.

He wasn't sure exactly who he was talking to, and murmurs came from the other cerebrates. Yet it became all too clear when Kerrigan looked to him incredulously. 'What?'

'Kerry…' He tried to find and easy way to say this. And he failed. 'I hate you. I despise you. I loath you. I didn't always, but what is there to like? You're selfish and think the whole universe should revolve around you. And anytime someone disagrees with you threaten to kill them.

You never liked Zasz. You hated him for refusing to treat you like you were something special long before you'd done anything to earn it. You rejoiced when you found out he was dead before what was left of his brood was even purged.

And now you're trying to lie to the Overmind. Do you really think he isn't aware of what you're doing? I don't pretend to know why he's doing this, but I know why you are.

The protoss are beaten. We've burned their settlements and we're about to burn their homeworld. But you aren't satisfied yet. You want more blood, more humiliation. It isn't enough for you to win, you have to kick the loser while they're down.

You want to stay on Char and hunt protoss? Fine. Go ahead. Be my guest. But I'm not staying here with you.'

Her expression darkened and she summoned to her her power. It was painful to stand in her presence, but he didn't care. 'Do not dare to cross me, cerebrate! You are mine, and I will command you to do as I-'

'I am the Overmind's!' roared the Cerebrate 'And I'm telling him that I will not work with you anymore.' He turned to the Overmind. 'Great Overmind, I cannot endure this task you have given me any longer. The chrysalis, for all its potential, was a failure. Her reckless idiocy allowed the terran Jim Raynor to escape. Her insatiable bloodlust caused the swarm to be shattered. And she does not care about any of it.

She has no regret for anything she has done.

I am sorry. However, if you force me to put up with this… monster any longer, then you can consider this my letter of resignation. Destroy me if you want, but I'm done serving her.'

There was a long moment of silence. Then the Overmind laughed. The sensation of it was strange, and the Cerebrate suddenly had the feeling that all had happened as he had planned. Yet why? And how?

 ** _'_** ** _It shall be as you say.'_** said the Overmind **_'You will take your sister's place in the front of the assault.'_**

'You can't do that!' cried Kerrigan.

And then the Overmind became angry. It was terrifying and magnificent to look upon, and Kerrigan had approximately ten seconds to realized how utterly she had fucked up.

 ** _'_** ** _I AM EVOLUTION AND ADAPTATION! MUTATION AND INFESTATION! BEGINNING AND END!'_** proclaimed the Overmind and the swarms shook with his anger. Then his will was focused totally on Kerrigan, who was crushed to the floor, straining to breathe. ' ** _In you I gifted the power of choice. To do as you desired. Yet not you alone were given this gift. As you were a terran imbued with the essence of the zerg, your brother was a cerebrate imbued with the essence of a terran. You were meant to work as one, to combine your powers for the betterment of the swarm._**

 ** _Yet in your purity was pride born. I have born witness to the death of stars and seen all things past, present, and future and yet I have never beheld such reckless hubris. None were more favored in my eyes than you, and in none was a greater hope placed. Yet you despised your birthright and imagined yourself as ruler of the swarm._**

 ** _You said in your heart, "I will become like the Overmind! I will ascend beyond my place, and place my throne above the swarm!"_**

 ** _Your brother is bound to me as intimately as any cerebrate. You should fear him, for his designs are mine made manifest. He is free to do as he desires.'_**

'As… as you command, great Overmind.' gasped Kerrigan.

Then the Overmind turned its attention to other matters, heeding Kerrigan no more than any other member of the swarm. Daggoth took its place and regarded Kerrigan with scarcely concealed contempt. **'You shall hunt down the remaining dark templar and see to it that they will not interfere in our assimilation of the protoss. Do not fail us again.'**

Thus was the Queen of Blades humbled by the very weapon she sought to control. The Cerebrate took an immense satisfaction from the look on the bitch's face.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

So it is a long running question in Starcraft Lore: Why is it that Kerrigan was left behind on Char when she was the Overmind's secret weapon. Queen of Blades' explanation is that Kerrigan is so tricksy and awesome that she deceived a physical god who can read her every thought. This is really stupid, so I decided not to go with that.

Wings of Liberty's explanation is that Kerrigan is supposed to be a zerg leader untainted by Amon. But I've already established that the Overmind and Duran are working at cross purposes.

So what was left?

This was my answer.


	10. The Invasion of Aiur

**Chapter Ten: The Invasion of Aiur**

 _We never had any eyes on the ground for the opening stage of the battle for Aiur so I can't really describe it. All I can really say is what the protoss told us. One day they were living their lives, doing their own thing and then the next the zerg arrived. There had been no warning._

 _The swarm arrived and like Tarsonis before began to eradicate everything that moved._

 _It did that._

 _Liberty's report, volume II_

* * *

It was a larger mustering than any which had come before it. Across the sector, vast numbers of zerg flocked together for a single purpose, the same purpose which had driven their existence since long before most of them had existed.

Overlords filled the skies around Char, mustering in greater and greater numbers. A number of hatcheries were lifted up from the surface of Char for swift colonization. The mutalisks alone numbered in the tens of billions. Hive clusters across the sector had been emptied for this singular purpose, and now they were heading through warp space.

The Cerebrate prepared himself as he led the vanguard. He would be the first to land to establish a foothold upon Aiur and the rest would follow behind.

The Overmind Spoke. **_'My children, the hour of our victory is at hand. For upon this world of Aiur shall we incorporate the strongest known species into our fold. Then shall we be the greatest of creation's children. We shall be... Perfect._**

 ** _Yet before I can be made manifest upon this world, the way must be prepared.'_** Then his attention turned directly to the Cerebrate. **'You must seize the Khaydarin Crystals. For within them lies power undreamed of by the Protoss.**

 **Go now, my Cerebrate. Secure the crystals, and bring swift wrath to all who oppose the Swarm!'**

He saw Aiur then for the first time. It was covered in the light which emanated from the protoss. He could sense them living out their lives far below. They had many hundreds of settlements on the settlement the Overmind was directing him to alone. Alone he should never have been able to face them. Yet he was not alone.

He was part of the swarm.

Descending upon the world he planted his hatcheries. It was not an efficient process like that of the terrans, it was traumatic for the hatchery and it took hours for it to fully establish itself. Even after that, it was some days before it was working properly. The Cerebrate was deadly afraid that the protoss would come against him then, but they did not.

It had not entered their darkest dreams that the swarm could ever come to this world. Otherwise, they would have had a tighter defense. As it was he operated freely for some time.

In this time he learned that Aiur was nothing like Char. It was a tranquil world of many green fields and flowing rivers. The air was fresh and cool, and the animals and plants here were like those of the jungles on some terran worlds. Yet they were also different, for every inch of them oozed with psionic energy.

To use psionic power on this world was as simple as breathing. Although the Cerebrate felt strange and different than on Char, it was not altogether unpleasant. He felt stronger. More cunning.

Then the protoss came.

At first, it was only a squad of their zealots moving through the ground. They saw his zerg and attacked them. There was a brief skirmish, several of the zealots were killed, and several dozen zerglings died and then the zealots fled back. The Cerebrate did not bother to pursue yet, he knew that what they had seen had been relayed back to the protoss.

He expected they would return soon.

He did not intend to give them the chance. Mustering to him some of his flyers he sent a vast swarm of mutalisks along the cliffs. They soon met a team of dragoons and exchanged fire. Photons cannons supported them, and many of the mutalisks fell. He drew them back, and the dragoons pursued.

No sooner had they left the range of the photon cannons and the trap was sprung. The mutalisks and many others descended on the dragoons and tore them to shreds in moments. The pressing on they attacked the now unsupported photon cannons.

As the battle continued the Cerebrate could sense the growing fear from the protoss. They were slowly learning that the forces arrayed against them were too great. They called for help, but too late. The photons cannons were annihilated and the Cerebrate descended on their nexus, tearing apart every dragoon that stood in his way.

A panic overtook the protoss here, but it was slow to spread to their fellow settlements. They were slow to respond, still mustering their forces. The protoss fled their towns, taking their families and belongings with them as they ran for the other settlements. The Cerebrate let them go, instead setting about eradicating their military installations.

At the same time, he sent a drone to begin establishing a new hive cluster.

First blood had been shed.

Then the invasion began. Out of warp space came the swarm with no subtlety of any kind. They tore through the orbital defense forces who had only just begun to mobilize and the Cerebrate could sense them descending across the planet. New hive clusters were established, only to be eradicated and established again. Protoss settlements were laid to waste as great tides of zerg swarmed down from the sky, and along the ground to assail their defenses. Already the Cerebrate could sense an unending tide of zerg swarming out across Aiur, while new hive clusters were erected and the creep began to spread.

Days passed and the Cerebrate found that he was able to establish his own clusters without fear of assault. The protoss seemed focused on those zerg who were an active threat. He could sense the protoss to the south, east and west contending with zerg on other sides. For now, it appeared to be a stalemate.

So much the better.

He gathered to him a mighty host of hydralisks and mutalisks and when he had erected a powerful hive cluster in the site of the ruined protoss settlement, he sent forth a drone to the Khaydarin Crystal which he sensed directly south of his position. Resistance was weak, everyone was too distracted with the zerg rampaging across the planet to stop it.

The drone reached the Khaydarin Crystal and it was beautiful. So beautiful that it seemed almost a shame to mar something so great. Yet he ordered his drone to begin operations and the creature burrowed into the dirt and began to work.

 **'** **The crystal is being harvested.'** said Daggoth.

The protoss had gotten organized, however. Responding to the surprise attack they were now deploying the full might of their power against the swarm. Vast golden ships called carriers unleashed tiny vessels that killed many zerg. Scouts surged through the air, their missiles tearing through mutalisks. The zealots rushed at the zerg, slashing through the enemy while dragoons fired in support.

Things called Arbiters hid the protoss from view and so were able to take many zerg by surprise. Whole armies were eradicated by such ambushes. Yet still on came the swarm.

Even so, the protoss surrounding the Cerebrate seemed to have gained victory over their enemies and the crystal proved difficult to carve through.

The Cerebrate could sense the protoss readying for an assault. Then the assault came, not on the new hive clusters, but on his landing site. Scouts and carriers rushed over the cliffs to assault it. Spore and sunken colonies were soon laid to waste while the Cerebrate scrambled his mutalisks to battle while mustering his hydralisks.

Soon they arrived and battle was joined. Scouts and mutalisks dueled, while still more of the Cerebrate's flyers descended on the carriers. For a few moments they dueled, then the carriers began to withdraw while a new line of scouts arrived to cover their retreat.

Yet the Cerebrate sent forth a great host of scourges. Many of them were killed, yet many more got through and exploded. The shields on several carriers went down, and two of them reeled and fell to earth to explode in a brilliant display of blue light. Many more scouts died in a desperate defense before at last, the Cerebrate dared not pursue them any further.

Yet that was not the end, for zealots rushed over the lands to assault the new hive clusters. They crashed against the hydralisks, whose spines were unleashed on the lines. Yet met more engaged them and soon mass carnage ensued. A hydralisk tore to pieces a zealot, only to be cut in half by another, who slew three more before he was shot to pieces along with two others by new groups of hydralisks.

Then came the reavers and a whole section of the zerg line was destroyed, blasted to pieces by an onslaught of blue light. Summoning up his mutalisks the Cerebrate assailed the reavers, tearing them to pieces from the sky, before wheeling them around to flank the attacking protoss. Finally, the attackers broke and retreated.

Satisfied the Cerebrate set about creating more hive clusters in other mineral rich areas while waiting for the drone to continue its efforts. Days passed with no further assaults and the invasion continued. Many lesser protoss settlements had been destroyed, and many of the greater ones had come under heavy assault.

The protoss fielded a formidable defense, greater even than the battle of Tarsonis long ago. Yet the army sent against the protoss was far greater than that which had been sent to Tarsonis. The swarm was relentless in its advance and did not let up for anything. As the slaughter continued the Cerebrate felt a sense of pity for the protoss who were being assaulted.

And yet it was strange. There did not seem to be much concern from the protoss as a whole. Those doing battle with the swarm were taking it seriously, yet the Cerebrate realized that the protoss had not yet begun to commit fully to the battle. The swarm was on their doorstep and yet their leaders seemed to have hardly paid heed to what was happening.

It was as though they were detached from the swarms assaults. As the battle continued there was growing resentment from the protoss of those whom they served. Those that took the place of the Overmind. Battle raged, and yet the forces which surrounded that isolated group of leaders did not commit.

What were they thinking?

Whatever it was, the drone had at last done its work. The Cerebrate called it back to him, yet the journey back did not go so well as the journey too. Even as the drone made for the hive clusters it was assailed by a great host of protoss who slew the creature. The crystal was now lying in the open and the protoss had an army where it once was.

Summoning another drone, the Cerebrate sent forth his armies en masse to do battle. Dragoons and mutalisks, zealots and hydralisks all engaged in bloody conflict while the drone raced through the fray. Grasping the crystal the Cerebrate had his hydralisks form ranks around to protect the drone as they drew back.

They left behind them the corpses of many protoss and zerg. Yet they were not pursued, for the protoss soon came under attack by newly landed swarms. The battle continued to rage while the Cerebrate drew back his drone to the primary hive clusters. 'Daggoth, I've done it!' he said 'We have the crystal!'

Daggoth surged with triumph. **'Cerebrates, the Khaydarin Crystals are now in our possession. Now, all shall tremble before the might of the swarm!'**

The full might of the swarm then arrived and descended to the surface of Aiur to continue the assault. Daggoth directed the swarm to areas that were failing, and areas where a swift offensive might lead to victory. Beneath his gaze much more territory was seized beneath the spread of zerg. Over the course of the next few days creep spread across Aiur, and many protoss were forced to relocate to more defensible locations beneath the unending onslaught.

The protoss fought well. But the zerg were only getting started.

The invasion of Aiur had begun.

The Cerebrate just hoped that all this would be worth it.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Wow, this chapter is really light on the story isn't it? I had to really work at it to find something to pad this chapter out. The Cerebrate's impersonal connection to the war makes it hard to make things interesting. Some people suggested focusing on the other side of the story, but I wanted to take the perspective of the race who is starring in a given story.


	11. Full Circle

**Chapter 11: Full Circle**

It had taken them a while, but the protoss were at last beginning to mobilize. Fleets of warships which had, if the memories of those killed were any indication, long been in storage were being called up for war. Great numbers of soldiers were being summoned and this second wind had caused the defeat of several lesser cerebrates. However the Overmind was calling to it all the broods that could be spared, and ground lost was retaken.

Daggoth had been organizing the lesser cerebrates, dispatching each to a challenge worthy of their skill. And little by little they had been gaining power over more of the surface of Aiur. The battle was still going in their favor.

Then the Overmind appeared before the Cerebrate and spoke to him and him alone:

 ** _'_** ** _You have done well, my Cerebrate. The Protoss can do nothing but flee before the onslaught of the Swarm. But now you must assault one final site before our conquest is assured.'_**

'What site is this, great Overmind?' asked the Cerebrate, trying to remain enthusiastic.

A vision came before him of a towering structure of stone. It loomed over the entire surrounding landscape, a pyramid with many symbols upon it. It stood at the very center of a great city of protoss. Their golden structures could be seen, and the Cerebrate could sense them even now going about their business.

It was… beautiful in its own way.

He could also sense many towns surrounding the outlying regions. There towns traded with each other, as well as the main city. They had fully functional militaries, yet they had not yet been mobilized.

 ** _'_** ** _Behold, there is a temple, not far from here, that lies upon ground most hallowed. Though I have born witness to the passing of countless millennia, the temple which you must assault is older by far. For it was constructed by my creators, the Xel'Naga, and it marks the site where the Xel'Naga first set foot upon Aiur.'_**

'You would have us seize this temple?' guessed the Cerebrate.

 ** _'_** ** _The temple must be cleared, and the Khaydarin Crystal set in its place. Only then shall the way be made ready. For it is upon that ground alone that I may be manifest.'_**

So once again it was a mission of destruction. As it always was, as it always had been. Yet the Overmind understood more than the Cerebrate could ever know. He should trust in the Overmind, and all would be well.

 **'** **Cerebrate,'** said Daggoth **'I will cover your flanks and ensure that nothing goes through.**

He took command of a recently created hive cluster and began to muster his broods. However, he had not gotten far before he sensed the coming of a new enemy. A great fleet of protoss warships were en route even now, and beneath them were a great host of zealots and dragoons.

He could sense their resolve. Their grim determination. The swarm had attacked their throne world, and burned many cities. Yet it stopped here. They would crush the zerg, once and for all. Or so they thought. Somewhat regretfully the Cerebrate realized that he would have to destroy this petty illusion.

As he mustered his mutalisks against their carriers, they were intercepted by scouts and soon an aerial dogfight was occurring near his hive clusters. The mutalisks, however, were targeting the carriers smaller craft, which were too fast to shoot down and returned to their carriers for repair, and in the meantime, the scouts did more and more damage.

'Ignore the scouts,' said the Cerebrate 'destroy the carriers!'

The mutalisks obeyed and slipped through the protoss screen of fighters before assaulting the carriers. Some fell, but many more got through. Beneath them the Cerebrate sensed the brutal stalemate between the protoss ground forces and his hydralisks grinding on, with massive casualties on both sides. Yet reinforcements from other hives were arriving even now, while the protoss were waning.

The protoss realized the situation was turning against them, but they were determined to stay the course. To continue the fight and gain victory, for Aiur, for Adun, for the Conclave. These words which flashed through the Cerebrates mind held some meaning he did not understand at all.

'Fight on my brethren!' cried a protoss. 'Fight on!'

'Kill him.' said the Cerebrate.

The hydralisks focused their fire. In a few moments, his shields were broken and he fell backward, many spines shot into his body. He landed, and then disappeared in a flash of psionic flame. There was some unspoken communication between them. Then the protoss warriors began to withdraw.

The carriers too began to withdraw, the fighters trying to cover their withdrawal. The Cerebrate contacted his minions. Time to destroy what the protoss couldn't replace.

'My swarms, target the carriers!' he cried 'Bring them down!'

Hydralisk and mutalisk alike surged after the giant slow moving vessels, spines and blades tearing through its shields. One had explosions in its engines and descended towards the ground to crash and exploded into a radiance of blue light, leaving behind only a broken and burned wreck.

Then from the flanks came a force of dragoons. They fired their shots at the attacking hive cluster and the Cerebrate was forced to draw his forces back to fend them off. They withdraw as soon as he came and he realized suddenly that the protoss assault force had withdrawn while they were fighting here.

There was nothing for it. He could not hope to launch an assault while the border towns were launching raids like this.

'Daggoth,' said the Cerebrate 'I require more mutalisks to continue the assault.'

 **'** **As you will, Cerebrate.'** said Daggoth.

Over the course of the next few days, more mutalisks arrived as well as much more than that. Gathering those to him, he sent them forth in close formation to the west. Surging over the cliffs he found the Nexus almost unguarded and unleashed his mutalisks upon it.

Within mere moments many of the protoss surrounding it were slaughtered. Chaos and panic overtook them. They had assumed that they could confront the swarm and live. A dangerous misjudgment.

'The defenses here are pathetic.' said the Cerebrate 'They should have set photon cannons on the cliffs. And where are their defenders?'

Spheres of energy surged out of the air and blasted several mutalisks out of the sky. The Cerebrate saw dragoons coming to defend. Finally.

'Ah, there they are.'

The mutalisks surged around to face the new threat. Their blades tore through the dragoons, though they suffered casualties in the process. For a few moments, the two sides traded fire, with many deaths on both sides. The protoss would not withdraw here, for this was their home.

At last the last of the dragoons did. The Cerebrate then set about burning the Nexus. As that happened, however, his attention was drawn away. His hive cluster was under attack by protoss from the each. Drawing his hydralisks around he set them to fend the enemy off. It was nothing he couldn't handle.

The enemy withdrew after a brief skirmish.

Then he turned his attention back to the Nexus. The Nexus had been destroyed, being little more than a ruin now. The protoss had lost all cohesion with its fall, and he set about devastating their pylons and military installations. Finally, when the protoss had been pacified, the Cerebrate drew forth drones to begin the creation of a new hatchery where the Nexus had once been. He sent hydralisks with them to guard against the protoss.

It occurred to him that he was building a dominion of the swarm within the sight of those who had once dwelled there. Good, if it broke their spirits it would be easier to get them to leave. Still, he made no attempt to slay the survivors of his assault.

'Daggoth, the western protoss have been pacified and I am beginning the construction of a new hive cluster.' said the Cerebrate.

 **'** **Well done.'** said Daggoth **'However the eastern communities remain.'**

The Cerebrate realized that Daggoth had complimented him. This was a first. 'I'll handle them Daggoth.'

Summoning his mutalisks, the Cerebrate sent them east and fell upon the eastern town. However here he found they were well prepared. Photon cannons had been set on the cliff, and by the time he broke through those the dragoons had been arrayed before them in great numbers. Trading fire, both sides took great casualties, and the Cerebrate called for more assistance, drawing in more mutalisks.

By the time they arrived his mutalisks had suffered great casualties, but so had the protoss and the enemy was swept away. With all defenses crushed the Cerebrate set about devastating the Nexus and pylons. The protoss fled beneath his onslaught, and he let them escape.

With that done he left the ruins where they were and called forth drones and an escort of hydralisks to begin construction of a new hive cluster. He felt a surged of satisfaction from his work thus far and sensed how the invasion was progressing.

The stalemate between protoss and zerg had turned in the swarm's favor. The protoss offensives had failed and now more zerg were spreading across the planet. Good, whatever goal the Overmind sought it would be better achieved with the planet under their control.

Still it could not be denied that the protoss were fighting well. Where most humans of Tarsonis had given up in despair the protoss fought back with even greater fury. They made the swarm fight for every inch of space, retreating only to regroup. He could sense it. They would pray, they would meditate, they would prepare themselves for the end and then throw themselves without fear or hesitation against the swarm.

They were magnificent. The Cerebrate only prayed that when it came his time to die that he would die with half as much dignity as the creatures before him. For now he had business with the Temple of the Xel'naga.

He summoned to him a mighty army of hydralisks and zerglings, and called to him his remaining mutalisks. Then bringing them forward towards the city he unleashed them. The zerg surged across the landscape, the zerglings hitting first. They overwhelmed the forward photon cannons in a wave, before surging into the streets and beginning to kill everything in sight.

The protoss defenders were quickly to respond and soon the zerglings were being attacked on all sides by dragoons and zealots who rushed into battle. Many of the zerglings were slaughtered in moments. Then the hydralisks arrived and began to finish the job. A mass battle ensued and the Cerebrate drew up still more hydralisks from the surrounding area.

At the same time the mutalisks surged into the unprotected locations which the protoss had left unguarded to respond to the zerglings and hydralisks. While the battle raged throughout the streets, the mutalisks blew up pylons, sending the protoss city into darkness.

The zerglings were all slaughtered and the hydralisks had taken heavy casualties. Yet even as the tide turned against the zerg the second wave of hydralisks arrived and bolstered the attack. The protoss defense was driven in and their forces were scattered as the Cerebrate set his hydralisks towards the ancient temple.

As the hydralisks began to assault the photon cannon defenses, he called up ultralisks and guardians who rushed through the center of the city. By the time they arrived the photon cannons were in ruins and the hydralisks were attacking the temple itself.

The Cerebrate halted them for a moment. This Temple had been created by the Xel'naga. He knew nothing of the Xel'naga, save that the swarm had its uttermost source in them. Yet he also knew that the Overmind had commanded this temple's destruction.

It was a shame. For it was beautiful, and he could sense the protoss looking on in horror. They were hoping the swarm would leave the temple intact. Yet he could not do that. He must destroy it. It was his duty.

Duty. A terran concept.

For the first time the Cerebrate wondered if he truly understood the swarm. Or if his terran mindset simply interpreted it in a fashion he could understand. It didn't matter. He ordered his swarms forward.

Ultralisks tore down great pillars. Guardians blasted the walls with acid that burned away at the temple walls. Hydralisks broke down the inside with their scythes. Little by little the temple collapsed in on itself falling into broken fragments. He sensed the protoss' despair at seeing their holy places destroyed. Their desperation. Their anger.

 **'** **Cerebrate, the Protoss have launched a final offensive to keep us from the ruins.'** said Daggoth **'You must hold them at bay for awhile longer!'**

The Cerebrate sensed the drone who held the Khaydarin Crystal approaching. He also sensed mass assaults being launched against the swarm throughout Auir. The protoss sensed what had happened and were furious. Yet here they did not strike. The drone arrived and the Overmind spoke, first to the Cerebrate.

 ** _'_** ** _I will give you a name, you who have become among the greatest of my agents. And I will name you… Kaloth.'_**

A name. The Cerebrate had been given a name. That ultimate achievement which was given only to the greatest of Cerebrates was now his. Joy filled him as the Overmind turned to address the swarm as a whole.

 ** _'_** ** _Now shall the events set into motion so long ago be made complete. For the Protoss, too, were created by the Xel'naga. They were the first creation, gifted with a purity of form. And we were the second creation, blessed with a purity of essence. Indeed, our two species are but opposite facets of a greater whole. Soon shall our two races be made as one. Thenceforth shall all feel the wrath of the eternal Swarm... For the hour of judgement is come!'_**

And across Auir, across the sector, the protoss and terrans looked up with sudden fear as a force beyond their comprehension came. It descended from on high, over the decimated ruins of the protoss' city and landed. All the protoss who had not already fled or been killed fled now in primal terror of a being beyond their hope of understanding.

A new force then arose, something like a hatchery. Yet this was not meant to create larva, it was far grander. In that moment the Cerebrate sensed the Overmind come in among them like it never had been before. He saw his god made manifest upon Auir.

Now nothing could stop them!

Yet as the swarm rejoiced, the Cerebrate merely felt suddenly empty. The joy at having received a name was oddly fleeting. He had achieved that which all Cerebrate's sought, yet it seemed but an empty title. He had triumphed over his rival, Kerrigan, yet it seemed meaningless. The protoss had been broken and shattered beneath his grip, yet he could feel only pity for the wretched creatures.

It was meaningless. Everything beneath his gaze was meaningless.

Yet all he could do was see things through to whatever end.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Okay so here we have the finale of Birth of a Queen. If I can find something to add, I may include an epilogue of sorts. This fic was much shorter than the other ones, mostly because of how difficult it is to make.

Stay tuned for the next fic.


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